SABBATISMOS. 


DISCUSSION  AND  DEFENCE 


THE  LORD'S  DAY  OF  SACRED  REST, 


GEORQE  JUNKIN,   D.D.  LL.D. 


PHILADELPHIA  : 

PRINTED  FOR  THE  AUTHOR, 

BY  JAMES  B.  RODGERS,    No.  52  &  54  XORTH  SIXTH  STREET. 

1866. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord, 

1866,  by 

GEORGE  JUXKIN, 

In  the  Clerk's  OflBce  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Eastern  District 

of  Pennsylvania. 

BTEREOTTPED   BY   ■WESTCOTT   k   TU0M60X. 


TO  THE  EBADEE. 


The  American  people  are  a  Christian  nation ;  and,  like 
all  other  nations,  having  any  reasonable  pretensions  to  civil- 
ization^ they  have  had  from  the  first  an  organic  law.  With- 
out an  organic  law,  or  constitution,  they  would  not  be  a 
nation,  in  any  other  sense  than  that  in  which  we  call  our 
Indian  tribes  nations.  Our  first  political  organic  law,  which 
made  us  a  nation  was  the  Declaration  of  '76.  This  soon 
yielded  to  the  Articles  of  Coneedeeation  ;  and  this 
again  to  the  Constitution,  our  present  organic  law.  The 
first  two  are  defunct  as  to  their  form :  they  are  no  formal 
part  of  our  Constitution,  whilst  their  moral  substance  is 
perpetuated  in  the  grand  bond  of  our  National  Union. 
But  above  and  beyond  all  these,  the  people  who  made  this 
nation  always  recognized  the  moral  law  of  God  as  summarily 
contained  in  the  Ten  Coimmandsients,  and  as  spread  out  in 
"the  Scriptures  of  Truth,"  as  the  grand  basis  of  our  entire 
national  organization.  Our  Common  LaAv  is  all  found, 
as  to  its  pure  moral  elements,  in  the  Bible.  Among  these 
pure  moral  elements  stands  conspicuous  the  Fourth  Com- 
MAND^IENT.  Strike  down  this,  and  our  Christianity  goes 
with  it.  Destroy  the  Lord's  Day,  and  its  indispensable  ac- 
companiments, and  you  sweqD  away  the  foundations  of  the 

3 


4  TO    THE    READER. 

Republic.  For  a  free  goverainent  without  the  representa- 
tive principle  is  an  irapossibilit3^  Without  the  virtue  which 
the  Sabbath  only  can  secure  and  promote,  a  democratic  re- 
public, of  any  considerable  extent,  never  existed  and  never 
can.  Hence  the  frequent  assaults  upon  the  Sabbath.  Six 
years  ago  all  classes  of  in-eligion,  deism,  atheism,  etc. ,  con- 
Rpired  to  overturn  our  Sabbath  laws.  Now  another  attack 
is  in  progress,  with  this  avowed  purpose. 

Penn's  Great  Law — the  first  ever  established  in  his  Pro- 
vince, was  passed  December  12,  1682,  see  Chap,  xiv.  of 
this  work;  its  principle  was  renewed  in  1700,  in  1705,  in 
1794,  in  1845,  and  is  now  the  law  which  this  combination 
of  hostile  interests  is  endeavouring  to  destroy.  Hence 
this  Httle  work. 

I  have  arranged  the  matter  for  practical  use :  yet  not  go- 
ing into  much  detail  as  to  minor  objections;  giving  princi- 
ples  rather,  which  the  reader  must  apply  in  refutation  of 
objections. 


>- 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTEE  I. 

PACK 

HISTORICAL     PROOF     OF    THE     MORAL    CHARACTER    OF     THE 
SABBATH. 

1.  First  law  ever  given  to  man — 2.  Worship  in  Adam's 
family — 3.  Noah  observes  a  seven  days'  section  of  time 
— i.  Seven,  a  number  of  perfection — 5.  The  law  re- 
newed at  Sin — Bondage  in  Egypt 9 

CHAPTEE  II. 

OBJECTION   ANSWERED. 

If  the  Sabbath  had  been  given  at  the  beginning,  it  must 
have  been  often  named  in  history 16 

CHAPTEE  III. 

THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS  A  COMPEND   OF  MORAL   LAVT 

Law  necessary  to  man  at  the  beginning — 1.  Their  history 
— 2.  Covenant  with  God — 3.  Miraculous  accompani- 
ments— 4.  Given  by  Messiah — 5.  Moses'  miraculous 
fast — 6.  Written  on  stone — 7.  Deposited  in  the  Ark 25 

CHAPTEE  IV. 

A.  SACRED    REST    PROVED    BY   NATURAL    RELIGION    AND 

PROFANE    HISTORY 34 

5 


b  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  V. 

PAGE 

The  ten  words — eight  of  the  fourth  by  prescrip- 
tion      39 

CHAPTER  VI. 

ARGUMENT  FOR    THE    SABBATH    FROM    THE    CHARACTER    OP 
ITS  OPPOSERS. 

AThe  fruits  prove  the  tree  good  or  bad 45 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   TEN  COMMANDMENTS  THE  FEDERAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  IS- 
RAEL— THIS  CONSTITUTION  PURELY  RELIGIOUS  AND  IVIORAL. 

Ratification — "The  commandments"  mean  the  ten — 
Adopted  not  by  tribes,  but  as  a  nation — Examination  of 
the  ten  words — The  fourth  passed  by 52 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  FEDERAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  ISRAEL  PURELY  MORAL 
'^       — CONTINUED — FOURTH  COMMANDMENT  ANALYZED 62 

CHAPTER  IX. 

ALL  JEWISH  PECULIARITIES  ARE  LEGISLATI\TE  ENACTMENTS, 
NOT  CONSTITUTIONAL  LAWS. 

Some  constitution  necessary — Distinction  between  law  and 
penalty— 1.  The  passover— 2,  The  tabernacle— 3.  Ser- 
vants— 4.  Usury  laws — 5.  Penalties  vary,  law  unchange- 
able— Death  penalty  to  six  of  the  commandments 69 

CHAPTER  X. 

SET   FEASTS,   OR  EXTRA  SABBATHS. 

Col.  ii.  16,  vindicated,  against  our  opponents — New  moons 
— Passover — Trumpets — Atonement  day — Tabernacles 
— Rom.  XV.  5,  6 79 


CONTENTS.  7 

CHAPTEE  XI. 

PASB 
THE  FOURTH  PRECEPT,  OBJECTIOlSr  TO  BECAUSE  ITS  PENALTY 
IS  TOO  SEVERE — LOCAL    LEGISLATION    UNDER    IT  FOR  HE- 
BREWS. 

Death  penalty,  as  in  the  other  eight 86 

CHAPTEE  XII. 

OBJECTION — THE  SABBATH  WAS    A  SIGN    TO  JSRAEL,   THERE- 
FORE NOT  A  PERMANENT  MORAL  LAW. 

Things  well  known  are  used  as  signs — Sun,  moon,  and 
stars — Eainbow,  circumcision,  stars  and  stripes 95 

CHAPTEE  XIII. 

OBJECTIONS — IF  YOU  HOLD  TO  THE  SABBATH,  YOU  ISIUST  HOLD 
1.   TO   ITS   DEATH   PENALTY — 2.   TO   THE   SEVENTH   DAY. 

Seventh  day,  never  used  as  a  name  for  the  day  of  sacred 
rest — Sabbath  day  is  never  used  but  as  the  name  of  time 
devoted  to  sacred  rest 101 

CHAPTEE  XIV. 

THE  QUESTIONS  OF  TIME. 

Evasion  by  it  attempted — Eemarks — 1.  The  same  absolute 
portion  impossible — 2.  Day  begins  ?  extra  Sabbaths  at 
even — 3.  The  seventh,  or  the  first  day  ?  a  voyage  round 
the  globe  changes  the  day — 4.  The  change  of  day  to  the 
first — Sunday  a  name  objectionable — William  Penn  on 
Lord's  day...- 108 

CHAPTEE  XV. 

BENEFITS  OF  THE  SABBATH. 

Individual  man — Physically,  socially,  intellectually,  spi-  y— 

ritually — Eternally — Upon  society 127 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XVI. 


PAQK 

The  moral  force  of  the  sabbath — and  its  bear- 
ing   ON    NATIONAL  WEALTH 133 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

KEEP  IT  HOLY  TO  THE  LORD 

Negatively — Positively 142 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

DUTY   OF  HEADS  OF  FAMILIES  AND  NATIONS — PLEA  OF  FOR- 
EIGNERS— LET  US  ALONE. 

Relations — 1.  To  son  and  daughter — 2.  To  his  man-ser- 
vant and  maid-servant — 3.  Nor  thy  cattle — 4.  And  thy 
stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates 152 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

OBJECTION — THE  SUNDAY  LAWS  OF  THE  STATE  CURTAIL  CIVIi: 
LIBERTY. 

German  combination — Laws  are  a  restraint — Every  pre- 
cept of  the  ten  restrains — Not  bondage  but  freedom 161 

CHAPTER  XX. 

^  The  SABBATH — A  TYPE  OF    HEAVEN 169 


PEIITCHTOIT    ^^ 

.fi£C.  NOV  1880 
HB0L06IG& 

THE  LORD'S  DAY  A  SACRED  REST. 


CHAPTER    I. 

HISTORICAL   PROOF   OF    THE    MORAL    CHARACTER   OF 
THE    SABBATH   LAW. 

1.  The  first  law  ever  given  to  man  —2.  "Worship  in  Adam's  family  — 
3.  Noah  observes  a  seven-days'  section  of  time  — 4.  Seven,  a  num- 
ber of  perfection  — 5.  The  law  renewed  at  Sin  — Bondage  in 
Egypt. 

The  Bible  is  our  book  of  moral  philosophy. 
Above  and  beyond  it  there  is  no  authority.  What 
then  does  it  say  as  to  the  Sabbath  ? 

1.  The  first  proof  of  its  permanent  moral  obliga- 
tion is  the  fact  that  it  is  the  first  law  God  ever  en- 
acted "for  man."  "And  God  blessed  the  seventh 
day  and  sanctified  it ;  because  that  on  it  he  had 
rested  from  all  his  work  which  God  created  and 
made." — Genesis  ii.  3.  What  can  be  meant  by  this 
blessing  the  day  ?  Can  time  be  made  happy  ? 
What  by  hallowing  or  making  it  holy  ?  Can  time 
be  clothed  with  moral  purity  ?  Clearly,  both  the 
blessing  and  the  sanctifying  have  reference  to  man, 
for  whom  our  Saviour  says  the  day  was  made.  This 
appointment  of  a  day  of  rest  for  man,  immediately 


10  THE  lord's   day 

after  creation,  proves  that  it  was  not  an  institution 
peculiar  to  the  Jewish  nation,  for  Abraham,  their 
root-progenitor,  was  not  born  until  2076  years 
afterwards ;  and  because  it  is  expressly  said  else- 
where, "The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man" — for 
mankind;  and  because  here,  the  reason  of  its  ap- 
pointment was  God's  ceasing  from  the  work  of  cre- 
ating, in  which  the  whole  race  are  equally  interested. 
It  was  established  as  a  means  of  holiness  and  hap- 
piness to  mankind.  This  proves  it  to  be  a  moral 
law  binding  and  blessing  all  the  human  race. 

2.  The  second  proof  we  find  in  the  history  in 
Genesis  iv.  Here  we  have  a  brief  account  of  pub- 
lic worship.  "At  the  end  of  days  " — at  the  cutting 
off  of  days.  Here  is  reference  to  the  division  of 
days  into  sections.  The  number  of  days  included 
in  these  sections  is  not  here  named.  But  as  after- 
wards we  know  the  sections  were  of  seven  days,  as 
will  be  proved  shortly,  we  have  a  right  to  conclude 
it  was  so  here.  The  history  of  his  creation  most 
assuredly  was  made  known  to  Adam.  It  is  not 
conceivable  that  God  would  give  him  no  account  of 
the  creation  of  the  six  days  and  the  resting  of  the 
seventh.  To  allege,  because  no  written  account 
was  given  to  Adam,  therefore  he  was  ignorant  of 
all  this,  is  simply  childish;  for  no  man  can  prove 
that  there  was  any  written  alphabetic  language 
prior  to  Moses.  And  why  should  Moses  be  in- 
formed of  the  history  of  creation  and  Adam  himself 
left  ignorant  of  it  ?     No  man  can  believe  it.     Be- 


A  SACKED   BEST.  11 

sides,  the  brevity  of  the  history  admits  not  of  detail 
in  this  worship  of  Adam's  family — the  whole  race. 
These  first  seven  chapters  cover  the  history  of  1656 
years.  This  public  worship,  in  process  of  time — at 
the  end  of  days — imitating  the  Creator's  example 
of  six  days'  labor  and  one  of  rest,  is  mentioned  as 
a  thing  of  course,  and  proves  the  observance  of  a 
day  of  sacred  resting  from  labour  and  of  holy  con- 
secration. 

3.  The  cutting  off  of  days  into  sections  of  seven 
days  is  twice  mentioned  in  Genesis  viii.  10,  12. 
This  proves  that  Noah  observed  the  division  of 
time,  the  same  as  we  do  now.  The  same  can  be  in- 
ferred from  the  seven  days  noted  in  chapter  vii.  4, 
10,  "Yet  seven  days  and  I  will  cause  it  to  rain." 
"And  after  seven  days  the  waters  of  the  flood  were 
upon  the  earth."  Undoubtedly  the  hebdomadal, 
division  of  time  was  then  currently  in  use. 

4.  The  application  of  this  number  to  the  clean 
beasts,  v.  2,  also  shows  a  mystical  use,  most  easily 
explained  by  its  reference  to  the  days  of  creation 
and  of  rest  as  its  origin.  Seven  is  the  number  of 
perfection.  The  seventh  year  was  consecrated,  and 
"seven  Sabbaths  shall  be  complete,"  and  previ- 
ously, the  Egyptian  visions  presented  "  seven  well- 
favoured  kine,"  and  ill-favoured  the  same  in  number ; 
and  so  seven  good  and  seven  bad  ears  on  a  stock. 
So  seven  days  and  seven  priests,  bearing  seven 
trumpets,  etc.,  plainly  showing  the  number  seven  to 
be  peculiarly  distinguished  in  the  Scriptures ;  and 


12  THE   lord's   day 

this  being  first  presented  in  reference  to  the  days 
of  sacred  rest,  amounts  to  more  than  a  violent  pre- 
sumption— it  constitutes  a  proof  of  the  seventh 
day's  consecration  as  a  Sabbath  from  the  begin- 
ning. 

5.  The  next  historical  notice  of  the  law  is  in  Ex- 
odus xvi.  1 : — "  The  children  of  Israel  came  unto 
the  wilderness  of  Sin,  which  is  between  Elim  and 
Sinai."  This  was  before  the  giving  of  the  law  at 
Sinai ;  for  we  learn  in  Numbers  xxxiii.  that  there 
■were  four  removals  of  the  camp,  viz.,  Dophkah, 
Alush,  Rephidim,  and  Sinai,  before  they  came  to 
the  Mount.  It  was  here  in  the  wilderness  of  Sin, 
they  murmured  for  bread  and  the  manna  w^as  given. 
Just  one  month  passed  from  their  departure  from 
Rameses  (see  Numbers  xxxiii.  3,)  on  the  15th  day 
of  the  first  month,  and  on  the  15th  day  of  the 
second  month  they  came  into  the  wilderness  of  Sin 
(Exodus  xvi.  1.)  And,  "in  the  third  month,  when 
the  children  of  Israel  had  gone  forth  out  of  the 
land  of  Egypt,  the  same  day  they  came  unto  the 
wilderness  of  Sinai."  Exodus  xix.  1.  The  same 
day,  that  is,  the  fifteenth  day.  At  the  very  least, 
therefore,  the  rain  of  manna  took  place  a  month 
before  the  thunders  of  Sinai  were  heard.  Of  this 
bread  from  heaven,  the  people  gathered  an  homer 
for  each  person  each  day,  except  on  the  sixth  day 
they  gathered  two  homers  for  each  person.  The 
rulers  reported  this  matter  to  Moses,  "And  he  said 
unto  them,  this  is  that  which  the  Lord  hath  said, 


A   SACRED   REST.  13 

to-morrow  is  the  rest  of  the  Holy  Sabbath  unto  the 
Lord ;  bake  that  which  ye  will  bake  to-day,  and 
seethe  that  ye  will  seethe."  Exodus  xvi.  23,  26, 
"And  Moses  said.  Eat  that  to-day,  for  to-day  is  a 
Sabbath  unto  the  Lord ;  to-day  ye  shall  not  find  it 
in  the  field.  Six  days  ye  shall  gather  it ;  but  on 
the  seventh  day,  which  is  the  Sabbath,  in  it  there 
shall  be  none."     On  this  remark — 

(1.)  In  their  bondage  condition  for  two  hundred 
and  ten  years,  it  is  not  conceivable  that  the  people 
could  enjoy  their  Sabbath  rest,  and  keep  up  the 
regular  system  of  worship  and  instruction  which 
belongs  properly  to  "the  Sabbath  which  was  made 
for  man;"  those  sweet  rests  and  joyous  songs  of 
praise,  and  heavenly  instructions  by  their  elders  (for 
they  had  elders  even  in  Egypt.  Exodus  iii.  16. 
"Go  and  gather  the  elders  of  Israel  together;"  and 
xii.  21 ;  and  xvii.  5,  etc.)  The  oppression  which 
doomed  all  their  male  children  to  death,  like  the 
oppression,  which  dooms  a  man  to  work  ima  print- 
ing-office, or  on  a  railroad  car  seventeen  hours  per 
day,  for  seven  days  in  a  week,  must  have  well  nigh 
crushed  out  all  knowledge  of  the  holy  day,  as  it  cut 
oiF  the  poor  people  from  all  opportunity  to  worship 
their  God  and  to  receive  instruction  from  their 
elders. 

(2.)  This  miracle  of  the  manna  is  manifestly  de- 
signed, as  it  is  admirably  adapted,  to  teach  the  peo- 
ple the  blessedness  of  the  Sabbath  day.  It  teaches 
(1,)  That  they  have  a  right,  a  franchise  from  the 


14  THE   lord's   day 

God  of  heaven,  to  cease  from  labour  one  day  in 
seven.  No  Egyptian  task-master  (no  printer  or  rail- 
road company)  may  stand  over  them  to  enforce 
labour  on  the  Sabbath.  No  dire  necessity  any  longer 
to  toil  all  day  at  the  brick-kiln,  the  printing-office, 
or  the  cars.  Total  abstinence  from  toil  is  required. 
*'  Bake  that  which  ye  will  bake  to-day."  Evidently 
the  Hebrew  in  the  wilderness  was  a  freer  man  than 
the  bakers  are  to-day  in  Philadelphia.  Freedom 
from  labour,  and  liberty  to  worship  God  unmolested, 
have  made  so  little  progress  in  3757  years !  Such 
is  the  despotism  of  Mammon !  (2,)  That  the  peo- 
ple are  not  to  sit  in  idleness,  or  run  wild  in  excess 
of  plays  and  sports.  "  See,  for  that  the  Lord  hath 
given  you  the  Sabbath."  "Abide  ye  every  man  in 
his  place ;  let  no  man  go  out  of  his  place  on  the 
seventh  day.  So  the  people  rested  on  the  seventh 
day."  They  kept  the  day  ''holy  unto  the  Lord." 
The  only  sense,  as  we  have  seen,  in  which  time  can 
be  kept  Jioly,  is  the  performance  of  holy  exercises 
of  God's  worship.  "  It  is  lawful  to  do  good  on  the 
Sabbath  day." 

(3.)  This  transaction,  as  a  whole,  is  not  the  enact- 
ment of  a  new  statute,  but  the  resuscitation  of  an 
old  one.  Our  statute-book  exhibits  an  analogous 
case.  The  act  of  Penn,  December  12,  1682,  just 
after  his  first  landing  in  his  colony,  (see  Chap.  14) 
Btates,  "  for  the  ease  of  the  creation,  every  first 
day  of  the  week,  called  the  Lord's  Day,  people  shall 
abstain  from  their  common  toil  and  labour."     This 


A   SACRED    REST.  15 

"  Great  Law  "  was  not  set  aside,  but  involved — re- 
enacted  in  the  law  of  1705.  The  act  of  1705  was 
called  up  and  re-enacted  in  1794,  and  again  in  1845. 
If  we  had  only  the  lex  no7i  scripta,  the  cases  would 
have  been  more  alike.  They  are,  however,  alike  in 
another  respect,  viz.,  some  appendages  are  added,  as 
we  shall  see  in  another  place.  Now,  we  insist  that 
this  has  not  the  form  and  appearance  of  a  new  law. 
"  This  is  that  which  the  Lord  hath  said.  To-morrow  is 
the  rest  of  the  holy  Sabbath  unto  the  Lord."  If  a 
colporteur  take  his  station  near  some  depot,  where 
the  crowd  is  hurrying  off  to  worship  God  in  the 
country,  and  should  raise  his  voice  and  say,  "  This 
is  the  Sabbath  to  be  kept  holy  unto  the  Lord,  and 
here  are  little  books  suitable  for  the  Lord's  day," 
would  he  be  considered  in  the  light  of  a  legislator 
enacting  a  new  statute  ?  Thus  our  Lord  himself 
speaks : — ''A  new  commandment  give  I  unto  you, 
That  ye  love  one  another :"  but  John,  1  Epis.  ii.  7, 
speaking  of  the  very  same  law  of  love,  says: — "I 
write  no  new  commandment  unto  you,  but  an  old 
commandment,  which  ye  had  from  the  beginning." 
Here  is  no  inconsistency: — "He  that  loveth  not  his 
brother,  abideth  in  death." 

(4.)  We  must  remember  this  transaction  occurred 
a  whole  month  before  this  same  Sabbatic  law,  but 
with  more  detail,  was  enacted  again  at  Sinai.  So 
our  legislature  act  continually.  A  large  amount  of 
their  acts  contain,  and  are  an  enactment  of  some 
principle  of  the  Decalogue. 


16  THE   lord's   day 


CHAPTER    II. 

OBJECTION  ANSWERED. 

If  the  Sabbath  had  been  given  at  the  beginning,  it  must  have  been 
often  named  in  history. 

Here  we  may  as  well  meet  an  objection.  It  may 
be — it  has  been  said,  if  the  Sabbath  was  a  binding 
moral  law  from  the  beginning  of  mankind,  as 
Luther  and  Calvin  tell  us,  it  is  strange  that  we  find 
scarcely  any  notice  of  its  observance  for  so  many 
hundred  years.  Surely,  if  it  had  been  a  moral  law, 
binding  upon  all  mankind,  more  frequent  notices  of 
it  must  have  occurred  during  the  twenty-five  cen- 
turies from  Adam  to  Moses.  This  is  plausible,  but 
not  solid.  For,  first,  as  just  noted,  the  history  is 
very  brief;  and  we  have  seen  two  notable  instances 
of  Sabbatic  observance.  Secondly.  The  patriarchs 
Noah,  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob  were  in  the  habit 
of  erecting  their  altars  and  of  calling  upon  the  name 
of  the  Lord.  See  Genesis  viii.  20,  xii.  7,  xxii.  9, 
XXXV.  1-3.  Now  calling  on  the  name  of  the  Lord 
is  a  description  of  public  worship  ;  and  public  wor- 
ship implies  publication  of  the  time  and  place — it 
involves  conventional  agreement;  and  the  presump- 


A    SACRED   REST.  17 

tion  is  strong  that  these  days  of  public  worship  were 
the  same  as  observed  from  the  beginning — the  hal- 
lowed Sabbath  day.  But  my  third  and  chief  refu- 
tation of  this  objection  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  a 
negation.  There  is  no  record  duly  authoritative 
that  Moses'  wife  was  a  black  woman ;  therefore  she 
was  not  black,  she  was  only  ''an  Ethiopian  woman." 
There  is  no  record  that  Abram  forded  the  Euphrates ; 
therefore  he  did  not  ford  that  river.  There  is  no 
evidence  that  he  ferried  over  it ;  therefore  he  did 
not  cross  it  at  all.  Let  us  apply  this  reasoning  in 
another  case.  From  the  days  of  Cain  (Gen.  iv.  17) 
to  the  flood,  there  is  but  one  mention  made  of  wives 
(Gen.  iv.  19 ;)  therefore  men  had  no  wives  for  six- 
teen centuries.  From  the  sacrifices  of  Abel  and 
Cain  to  Noah,  no  sacrifices  are  mentioned  in  the 
records,  and  so  from  Noah  to  Abraham  ;  therefore 
the  divine  institution  of  sacrifice  was  utterly  ne- 
glected for  sixteen  centuries,  and  again  for  four 
centuries.  Again,  "No  special  instance  of  the  prac- 
tice of  circumcision  is  recorded  as  having  occurred 
from  the  settlement  of  the  Hebrews  in  Canaan  to 
the  time  of  Christ."  (Princeton  Rev.,  October,  1859.) 
Therefore  for  nearly  fifteen  centuries  the  sacred 
symbol  and  seal  of  Abraham's  covenant  was  lost 
and  ignored !  On  the  contrary,  the  brief  notices 
above  of  the  law  of  sacred  rest  are  just  such  as  the 
brief  history  would  reasonably  be  expected  to  give. 
Let  us  expand  this  last  idea  a  little.  It  is  argued 
by  the  opponents  of  the  Lord's  Pay,  that  if  the  rest 

2  * 


18  THE    lord's    day 

was  given  to  man  at  the  beginning  as  a  binding 
moral  law,  it  would  surely  have  been  oftener  men- 
tioned in  history  ;  whereas  we  hear  nothing  of  it 
until  Moses  gave  it  at  Sinai;  it  is  therefore  a  Jewish 
institution,  and  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  This 
is  the  logic  of  a  distinguished  divine  of  the  Estab- 
lished church  of  Scotland,  and  quite  fresh.  Of 
course  my  readers  know,  that  the  cream  of  Scotland's 
piety  and  learning  was  skimmed  off  from  the  church 
established  by  law  to  constitute  "the  Free  Church.'* 
Establishments  seemed  doomed  to  a  descending 
movement :  it  is  exceedingly  probable  that  this  ar- 
gument will  develop  the  Colenso  of  the  Scottish 
establishment.  But  let  us  to  the  answer.  If  the 
omission  or  infrequent  mention  of  the  Sabbath  from 
Adam  to  Moses  proves  that  it  was  never  given  to 
man  as  a  moral  law,  this  must  be  equally  applicable 
to  each  and  every  one  of  the  ten  commands.  They 
were  all  alike  uttered  in  thunder  from  Sinai ;  all 
equally  written  and  rewritten  by  the  finger  of  God 
on  the  tables  of  stone ;  they  each  and  all  stand  on 
the  very  same  foundation ;  they  must  stand,  all  of 
them,  or  fall  together.  If  the  Glasgow  Colenso  has 
demolished  the  fourth  commandment,  he  has  over- 
thrown the  Decalogue;  he  has  annihilated  the  whole 
moral  law  of  God,  and  there  will  be  a  jubilee  in 
Sodom,  Gomorrah,  and  Pandemonium.  Now,  dear 
reader,  would  you  believe  it  ?  This  conclusion  the 
Glasgow  Doctor  swallows.  "The  whole  of  the  Dec- 
alogue as  a  Decalogue  was  buried  with  Jesus  in  his 


A   SACKED   REST.  19 

grave."  This  results,  by  the  necessity  of  eternal 
logic,  from  the  position  taken,  that  the  fourth  com- 
mandment is  purely  Jewish.  But  the  end  is  not  yet ; 
for  the  same  inexorable  logic  "will  force  him  to  reject 
the  whole  Old  Testament,  a  fortiori ;  and  yet  fur- 
ther, the  New  Testament  must  fall  too. 

Open  infidelity  is  the  end  of  this  assault  upon  the 
moral  law  of  the  Sabbath.  Short  of  this  no  logical 
mind  can  stop.  This  accounts  for  the  glaring  fact, 
that  all  the  interests  of  immorality — the  rum  holes, 
the  gambling-houses,  the  theatres,  the  masked  balls, 
"the  synagogue  of  the  libertines,"  the  pulpits  which 
"  deny  the  Lord,"  and  proclaim  an  amnesty  in  the 
world  of  woe — all  conspire  to  overthrow  the  Sab- 
bath ;  whilst  all  evangelical  Christians,  of  all  names 
and  denominations,  "stand  up  for  Jesus,"  and  ad- 
vocate the  observance  of  the  Lord's  Day. 

If  any  of  the  other  precepts  are  found  in  the 
same  condition  with  the  fourth,  as  to  not  being  men- 
tioned from  Adam  to  Moses  at  Sinai,  the  same 
conclusion  must  inevitably  be  deduced  against  it. 
Silence  in  the  record  condemns  the  fourth ;  why  not 
condemn  every  precept  in  reference  to  which .  the 
same  silence  is  observed?  From  this  there  is  no 
shift :  it  must  be  met.  Let  us  then  see  how  the  case 
stands.  The  first  command  is,  "  Thou  shalt  have 
no  other  gods  before  me."  Will  any  pleader  against 
the  fourth  point  out  to  us  the  chapter  and  verse,  from 
Adam  to  Moses,  wherein  this  first  precept  is  found? 
If  no  man  can  be  discovered  so  learned  in  the  law, 


20  THE    LOKD'S    day 

then  indisputably,  the  first  command  is  null  and 
void." 

How  is  it  with  the  second?  "Thou  shalt  not 
make  unto  thee  any  graven  image,  etc."  Worship- 
ping idols,  or  using  them  at  all  in  worship,  is  forbid- 
den. Will  Dr.  McLeod  show  us  the  record  of  this 
precept,  prior  to  Moses?  Therefore  the  second 
commandment  is  obliterated;  away  with  this  Jewish 
figment,  and  give  liberty  to  the  human  soul,  that  the 
"free  German,"  and  the  scofiing  atheist,  and  the 
bigoted  Romanist,  may  bow  down  and  kiss  the  toe 
of  Jew  Peter,  expel  God  from  his  own  world,  and 
rescue  civil  government  from  the  thraldom  of  moral 
law,  and  all  fear  of  justice,  and  love  to  the  Creator! 

The  third  command  is : — "  Thou  shalt  not  take 
the  name  of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  vain,"  etc.  Is 
this  recorded  anywhere  in  the  history  prior  to 
Moses  ?  Let  the  place  be  pointed  out.  Where  is 
it?  If  not,  then  these  gentlemen  have  their  conclu- 
sion. The  law  against  profane  swearing  and  blas- 
phemy is  not  binding  upon  us.  How  dare  any  man 
reprove  us  for  it  ?  "  Our  tongue  is  our  own ;  who 
is  lord  over  us  ?"  How  dare  you  ask  a  free  man  to 
swear  in  a  court  of  justice,  and  yet  punish  him  for 
taking  God's  name  in  vain  on  any  occasion  he 
pleases  ? 

The  same  fate  awaits  the  fifth  and  sixth  precepts 
— "Honour  thy  father  and  thy  mother,  etc.,"  "Thou 
shall  not  kill."  If  these  are  not  recorded  in  the 
history,  they  are  Jewish  rites,  with  which  we  have 


A   SACRED   REST.  21 

no  concern  ;  and  what  child  does  not  know  that  no 
such  record  exists  ?  Hence,  my  readers,  the  fearful 
disregard  of  parental  authority.  With  all  the  re- 
straint of  law  and  the  force  of  instruction  under 
these  precepts,  how  fearful  the  disregard  to  parents, 
and  how  horribly  murders  abound !  Take  away 
these  laws,  let  corrupt  nature  know  there  is  no  moral 
law  giving  authority  to  parents  or  protection  to  life 
by  the  punishment  of  crimes ;  and  where  are  we  ? 
What  a  state  of  society  we  shall  have ! 

We  touched  on  the  law  of  the  seventh  command 
on  a  former  occasion.  "From  the  days  of  Cain" 
(Gen.  iv.  IT)  to  the  flood  there  is  but  twice  mention 
made  of  wives  (Gen.  iv.  19),  therefore  men  had  no 
wives  for  sixteen  centuries.  Concubines,  and  others 
still  less  permanently  bound  to  any  man,  must  have 
been  the  mothers  of  all,  from  Lamech  to  the  flood. 
Brigham  and  his  harem  are  not  new  inventions,  if 
this  logic  be  based  on  a  true  premise.  Let  us  em- 
brace this  philosophy  in  our  moral  code,  and  the 
Mormon  gospel  will  supplant  the  Bible,  and  Chris- 
tian ladies  may  attend  balls  without  wearing  masks. 

We  have  good  authority  for  the  existence  of  the 
seventh  precept  from  the  creation.  "  Have  ye  not 
read,  that  he,  which  made  them  at  the  beginning, 
made  them  male  and  female?"  Math.  xix.  Moses 
extended  some  indulgence,  but  he  never  allowed  the 
putting  away  of  a  wife  for  every  cause,  but  only  for 
impurity.  See  Deut.  xxiv.  1.  The  Pharisee  belied 
Moses,  who  did  not  sanction  divorce  without  cause ; 


22  TUE  lord's  day 

but  if  a  man  find  a  woman  impure,  and  is  about  to 
send  her  off,  Moses  orders  him  to  "  give  her  a  bill 
of  divorce."  This  whole  thing  was,  however,  a  mu- 
nicipal regulation  of  the  Jews,  and  not  the  seventh 
precept — not  the  law  of  marriage  prescribed  from 
the  beginning  to  the  whole  race.  Indisputably,  to 
those  who  believe  the  Bible,  marriage  is  a  moral 
law,  and  was  made  at  the  beginning,  and  this,  mo- 
nogamy, and  not  polygamy.  Monogamy  is  the 
original  law,  and  the  seventh  precept  enforces  it. 
Bnt  no  mention  is  made  of  it  from  Paradise  to  Sinai, 
in  the  brief  history ;  therefore,  according  to  the  ar- 
gumentation which  we  are  refuting,  the  seventh  is 
not  a  moral  law,  but  only  a  Jewish  ceremonial  affair, 
and  nothing  to  us  at  all. 

"Thou  shalt  not  steal."  This  eighth  precept 
cannot  be  found  on  the  record  until  you  come  to  the 
history  of  Joseph,  who  charged  his  brethren  with 
stealing  his  silver  cup;  it  therefore  cannot  be  a 
moral  law  according  to  the  reasoning  used  to  anni- 
hilate the  Sabbath,  by  converting  it  into  a  Jewish 
ceremony.  From  all  these  obviously  false  conclu- 
sions we  infer  the  falsehood  of  the  princijDle  from 
which  they  spring,  and  return  with  increased  confi- 
dence to  the  correctness  of  the  doctrine,  that  "  the 
Sabbath  was  made  for  man,"  immediately  upoti  his 
creation. 

We  have  seen  the  general  character  of  this  decla- 
ration of  our  Lord  ;  but  there  remains  an  aspect  of 
it  not  yet  presented.     If  it  was  ordained  and  estab-. 


A   SACRED   REST.  23 

lished  for  the  benefit  of  mankind  it  must  have  been 
communicated  to  man,  and  not  kept  hidden  for 
twenty-five  centuries,  and  then  revealed  and  made 
known  to  three  millions  of  fugitives  from  bondage, 
w^ho,  by  their  very  social  constitution,  were  not  to 
be  a  commercial  people;  but  whose  national  system 
cooped  them  up  and  secluded  them  from  mingling 
among  the  nations.  If  there  was  no  day  of  sacred 
rest  appointed  of  God  for  the  benefit  of  mankind 
until  Israel  reached  Sinai  in  the  year  of  the  world 
two  thousand  five  hundred,  how  could  it  be  said  this 
day  was  made  for  man  ? 

Man  knew  nothing  at  all  of  it  for  near  half  the 
present  age  of  the  world !  But  if  you  take  the 
history  as  it  is,  and  find  God  blessing  the  Sabbath 
day  and  sanctifying  it,  setting  it  apart  from  the  six 
days'  labour,  and  requiring  man  to  cultivate  thereon 
his  mind  and  heart  in  the  worship  of  the  great 
Creator,  and  promoting  charity  among  one  another ; 
and  consider  the  deep  depravity  and  sinfulness  of 
man,  which  leads  him  away  from  God;  and  therefore 
the  constant  tendency  to  disregard  the  holy  day — 
then  you  see  the  beautiful  consistency  of  the  lan- 
guage, "Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it 
holy,"  with  all  the  historical  facts  of  the  case. 

The  vocation  of  Abraham,  and  the  setting  apart 
of  his  race  as  the  peculiar  people  of  God,  was  pre- 
cisely designed  to  secure  the  truth  from  becoming 
entirely  unknown  and  lost.  So  the  writing  of  the 
history  of  the  world's  creation,  and  of  man  upon 


24  THE  lord's  day 

the  earth,  became  a  necessity,  when  the  lives  of  men 
dwindled  down  so  rapidly  after  the  flood;  and  in 
order  to  preserve  these  oracles,  they  were  entrusted 
to  this  chosen  and  segregated  people,  that  the  ages 
to  come  might  not  wholly  lose  the  knowledge  of 
their  own  history.  We  are  now  ready  to  approach 
the  holy  and  awful  Mount,  whence  this  Divine  me- 
morial of  the  original  rest-day  issued  forth  from  the 
midst  of  the  fire. 


A   SACRED    REST.  25 


CHAPTER  III. 

GftlE    TEN    COMMANDMENTS — A    COMPEND    OF   MORAL 
LAW. 

Law  necessary  to  man  at  the  beginning. — 1.  Their  history. — 2. 
Covenant  with  God. — 3.  Miraculous  accompaniments. — 4.  Given 
by  Messiah  direct. — 5.  Moses'  miraculous  fast. — 6.  Written  on 
stone. — 7.  Deposited  in  the  Ark. 

If  an  engineer  were  to  construct  a  locomotive  of 
a  million  horse  power,  fire  it  up,  and  start  it  in  the 
midst  of  our  citj,  without  governor  or  guide,  to  run 
at  random  through  streets  and  through  houses,  car- 
ryi-ng  desolation  and  death  in  its  fearful  course, 
would  the  public  account  him  a  wise  and  good  citi- 
zen ?  Or  would  they  hold  him  for  a  madman  or  a 
fiend,  and  call  him  to  account  for  his  conduct  ?  If 
some  Van  Amburgh  should  turn  adrift  an  untamed 
elephant  or  a  ferocious  lion  upon  the  community, 
without  any  governing  power  to  control  him,  would 
he  be  esteemed  a  wise  and  a  good  man  ?  And  do 
you  believe  that  God  built  such  a  machine  and  sent 
it  thus  adrift  ?  Did  he  let  loose  upon  his  world 
such  an  elephant,  or  such  a  lion,  and  yet  make  no 
provision  for  its  government,  rule,  and  direction  ? 
Why,  my  reader,  the  wise  Creator  enacted  laws  for 


26  THE  lord's  day 

the  government  of  every  creature  of  his  hand. 
Dead  matter  has  its  laws ;  and  living  animals  are 
governed  by  instincts  created  in  them,  and  with 
them.  And  can  you  believe  that  man,  the  crowning 
work  of  creation,  and  the  mightiest  for  good  or  evil 
of  all  the  inhabiters  of  earth,  was  thrown  into  the 
world  without  law  or  governing  principle  in  him  ? 
Or  do  you  not  rather  believe  that  law — moral  law-^ 
was  con-created  in  him  and  with  him  :  that  he  was 
created  in  the  image  of  God,  in  knowledge,  right- 
eousness, and  holiness :  that  this  image  of  God  in- 
volved the  moral  sense  or  conscience  ;  in  short,  that 
man  was  made  a  moral  agent  and  held  accountable 
for  his  conduct?  If  so,  he  must  have  had  a  law 
given  to  him  as  the  rule  of  his  action.  You  cannot 
form  a  conception  of  a  moral  agent  which  does  not 
involve  the  idea  of  a  moral  law — that  is,  a  rule  pre- 
scribing duty.  Hence  the  generally  received  doc- 
trine concerning  the  moral  law  of  man's  creation, 
that  God  made  man  upright  and  gave  him  a  rule  of 
action.  To  this  Paul  refers  in  Romans  ii.  15 : — 
"  Which  show  the  work  of  the  law,  written  in  their 
heart,  their  conscience  also  bearing  witness."  To 
deny  a  primitive  revelation  to  man  of  an  elementary 
law  for  a  rule  of  action,  is  to  deny  his  moral  agency 
and  to  place  him  below  the  brutes  and  birds,  whose 
instincts  are  to  them  effective  laws.  Such  is  not 
the  characteristic  of  him  who  is  lord  of  all  this 
lower  creation. 

Now,  this  primitive  revelation,  so  absolutely  ne- 


A    SACKED    REST.  27 

cessary  to  man's  moral  agency,  was  common  to  the 
race ;  and  that  it  has  been  often  disregarded  by  in- 
dividuals is  no  more  proof  of  its  non-existence  in 
the  earher  ages,  than  t^e  running  of  printing-presses 
and  cars  on  Sunday  is  proof  that  Pennsylvania  has 
never  had  a  law  against  such  things.  The  first  re- 
corded of  these  primitive  laws,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
that  prescribing  the  appropriation  of  one  day  in 
seven  to  rest  from  labour  jyliysicaly  and  to  active  la- 
bour in  things  spiritual.  But  that  there  were  other 
moral  rules  for  man  in  the  various  relations  of  so- 
ciety, cannot  be  doubted.  No  law  against  murder 
is  named  in  the  record,  but  the  death  of  Abel  and 
the  treatment  of  his  murderer,  in  whose  favour  a 
pardon,  or  rather  a  noli  prosequi  Avas  issued,  shows 
that  such  a  law  was  well  known  at  that.  day. 

We  now  enter  on  the  proof  of  the  proposition, 
that  the  law  of  the  Ten  Commandments  is  a  sum- 
mary re-enactment  of  the  moral  laws  under  which 
God'had  placed  man. 

1.  Let  us  advert  to  their  history.  One  month 
after  the  revival  and  restoration  of  the  Sabbatic 
law,  Israel  arrived  at  Sinai ;  Moses,  the  vicegerent 
of  God,  their  King,  went  up  the  very  next  day  to 
meet  God  on  the  Mount.  Exodus  xix.  3.  God  re- 
manded him  back  to  the  people,  to  submit  to  them 
the  terms  of  a  coven^t  which  he  proposed  to  es- 
tablish between  himself  and  Israel.  Its  terms  are 
— "  If  ye  will  obey  my  voice  indeed,  and  keep  my 
covenant,  then  ye  shall  be  a  peculiar  treasure  to  me 


28  THE  lord's  day 

above  all  people — for  all  the  earth  is  mine.  And 
ye  shall  be  unto  me  a  kingdom  of  priests ;  and  a 
holy  nation."  Verses  5,6.  Moses  went  down  "and 
called  the  elders  of  the  people,  and  laid  before  their 
faces  all  these  words."  And  all  the  people  (that 
is,  by  their  representatives,  the  elders)  answered 
together,  and  said,  "All  that  the  Lord  hath  spoken 
we  will  do."  Verses  7,  8.  And  Moses  returned  the 
words  of  the  people  unto  the  Lord.  This  negotia- 
tion occupied  two  days,  and  Moses  was  directed  to 
go  down  and  make  all  proper  arrangements  for  the 
awful  solemnities  of  the  third  day.  Bounds  are  to 
be  marked  along  the  base  of  the  Mount,  over  which 
no  man  or  beast  must  pass.  Verses  12,  13.  The 
morning  of  the  third  day  from  their  arrival  was 
ushered  in  by  the  loud  discharges  of  heaven's  ar- 
tillery :  "  Thunders  and  lightnings,  and  a  thick 
cloud  upon  the  Mount,  and  the  voice  of  the  trumpet 
exceeding  loud,  so  that  all  the  people  that  were  in 
the  camp  trembled."  And  remember,  they  num- 
bered three  millions.  "  And  Moses  brought  forth 
the  people  out  of  the  camp  to  meet  with  God,  and 
they  stood  at  the  nether  part  of  the  Mount.  And 
Mount  Sinai  was  altogether  on  a  smoke,  because 
the  Lord  descended  upon  it  in  fire :  and  the  smoke 
thereof  ascended  as  the  smoke  of  a  furnace,  and 
the  whole  Mount  quaked  grQ3,tly.  And  when  the 
voice  of  the  trumpet  sounded  long,  and  waxed 
louder  and  louder,  Moses  spake,  and  God  answered 
him  by  a  voice.     And   the  Lord  came  down  upon 


A    SACRED    REST.  29 

Mount  Sinai,  on  the  top  of  the  Mount,  and  the 
Lord  called  Moses  up  to  the  top  of  the  Mount,  and 
Moses  went  up."  Verses  16-20.  Such  are  the 
scenes  preparatory  to  the  giving  of  the  law  of  the 
Ten  Commandments ;  the  central  one  of  which 
wicked  man  desires  to  strike  out,  and  thus  to  drown 
the  thunders  of  omnipotence  in  the  mad  bellowings 
of  jMammon  for  money  !  money  !  money  !  The 
grandest  and  most  sublime  scene  our  earth  ever 
witnessed,  or  ever  will  witness,  until  that  very  same 
Lord  shall  descend  with  a  shout  with  the  voice  of 
the  archangel  and  the  trump  of  God,  and  wake  up  the 
teeming  myriads  of  earth's  longest  and  most  profound 
sleepers,  is  to  be  scouted  and  contemned,  because  a 
few  rebels  against  God's  law  and  the  laws  of  Penn- 
sylvania want  to  make  money  by  Sunday  labour  ! 

2.  Having  entered  into  a  formal  and  solemn  cove- 
nant with  Israel,  they  pledging  obedience  to  him, 
and  he  pledging  to  make  them  his  peculiar  treas- 
ure above  all  people,  the  Lord  proceeds  to  test  their 
obedience  by  prescribing  laws  to  them.  The  great 
and  magnificent  preparations  for  their  utterance  we 
have  adverted  to.  We  must  now  note  the  neAv  and 
more  intimate  relations  the  people  sustain  to  God 
under  this  covenant  of  restrictions ;  which  looks  to 
the  limitation  of  the  covenant  with  Abraham  mak- 
ing him  the  father  of  many  nations,  and  confining 
its  blessings  to  this  people  of  Israel.  Accordingly, 
in  verse  2,  chap.  xx.  he  refers  to  this  peculiar  near- 
ness of  relation,  "  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  which 
3  * 


30  THE    lord's    day 

have  brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of 
the  house  of  bondage."  This  language  is  substan- 
tially the  same  which  prefaced  the  proposal  of  the 
covenant  of  restriction  mentioned  in  the  preceding 
paper,  and  in  chap,  xix.,  4-10.  Without  expressly 
affirming  it,  it  nevertheless  suggests  the  reason  why 
Israel  should  give  an  attentive  ear  to  the  command- 
ments immediately  following.  It  occupies  the  local 
position,  yet  Avithout  either  the  form  or  the  substance 
of  a  preamble  to  the  constitution  which  follows. 
Hence  it  is  argued  by  some  that  the  ten  words  be- 
long exclusively  to  the  Hebrew  people,  and  that 
they  have  no  binding  authority  for  any  other  peo- 
ple. We  admit  they  express  a  reason,  special  and 
pointed,  and  based  on  gratitude,  why  that  people 
should  make  a  solemn  league  and  covenant  with 
God,  and  why  they  should  fulfil  it  in  keeping  this 
law  of  the  ten  words.  But  how  this  should  shut 
out  other  nations  and  people  from  the  pale  of  this 
moral  code,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  see.  There 
are  no  terms  indicative  of  exclusiveness,  either  in 
this  preamble  or  in  the  ten  words,  or  in  the  subse- 
quent remarks  ;  nothing  to  shut  off  the  rest  of  man- 
kind from  the  benefits  of  God's  moral  law. 

We  ought  to  note  particularly  that  they  were 
uttered  in  thunder-tones  from  the  summit  of  the 
fiery  Mount.  We  have  observed  the  prelude  to  the 
awful  act,  and  when  the  majestic  utterances  are 
closed,  the  historian  tells  us  (verse  18,)  "And  all  the 
people  saw  the  thunderings,  and  the  lightnings,  and 


A   SACRED   REST.  31 

the  noise  of  the  trumpet,  and  the  mountain  smok- 
ing." No  difference  is  perceived  in  regard  to  any 
of  the  ten.  All  and  equally  they  are  the  voice  of 
God. 

3.  This  miraculous  utterance,  with  all  its  dread 
surroundings,  is  intended  to  impress  the  mind  with 
a  profoundly  solemn  sense  of  the  transcendent  im- 
portance of  the  matter  or  things  so  uttered.  We 
can  imagine  nothing  better  adapted  to  produce  such 
an  impression.  "  And  the  people  stood  afar  off,  and 
Moses  drew  near  unto  the  thick  darkness  where 
God  was.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Thus 
shalt  thou  say  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  Ye  havo 
seen  that  I  have  talked  with  you  from  heaven" — 
verses  21,  22.  Take  with  this  (3)  another  remark. 
These  ten  commandments  are  all  that  God  thus 
spake.  Much  instruction  and  many  laws  he  com- 
municated through  Moses ;  but  the  ten  only  in  thun- 
der tones  to  the  whole  people  directly.  Their  very 
great  importance  it  is  impossible  for  us  not  to  in- 
fer. 

4.  Before  we  inquire  into  the  matter  of  them,  let 
us  note  the  person  who  gave  this  law.  This  we  find 
to  be  the  second  person — the  Son  of  God.  This  is 
made  evident  by  comparing  Psalm  Ixviii.  17, 18  with 
Ephesians  iv.  8: — "  The  chariots  of  God  are  twenty 
thousand,  even  thousands  of  angels ;  the  Lord  is  in 
the  midst  of  them  as  in  Sinai.  Thou  hast  ascended 
on  high.  Thou  hast  led  captivity  captive ;  Thou  hast 
received  gifts  for  men."     This  is  applied  by  Paul  to 


82 

Christ: — ^'When  He  ascended  up  on  liigh,  He  led 
captivity  captive,  and  gave  gifts  unto  men."  The 
same  Lord  who  was  among  his  angels  on  Sinai,  de- 
scended into  the  lower  parts  of  the  earth,  and  also 
ascended  and  received  and  gave  gifts  for  men.  Je- 
hovah Jesus  it  was  that  thundered  from  Sinai  and 
that  flashed  in  the  lightnings  out  of  the  thick  dark- 
ness and  the  lurid  flames ;  hence  this  fire  was,  like 
that  in  the  bush  at  Horeb,  a  fire  that  burned  with- 
out consuming. 

5.  Moses,  after  the  utterance  of  the  ten  words, 
drew  near  the  thick  darkness,  xx.  21,  and  there  abode 
with  God  in  the  Mount  forty  days  and  forty  nights. 
Exodus  xxiv.  18.  And  during  these  meetings  he 
received  a  great  variety  and  number  of  municipal 
regulations,  chapter  xx.  21  to  xxiv.  1,  and  the  en- 
tire instructions  concerning  the  construction  of  the 
Tabernacle.  And  at  the  close  he  received  the  "two 
tables. of  testimony,  tables  of  stone,  written  with  the 
finger  of  God," — xxxi.  18.  ''And  on  them  was 
written  according  to  all  the  words  which  the  Lord 
spoke  with  you  in  the  Mount,  out  of  the  midst  of 
the  fire."     Deut.  ix.  10. 

6.  This  writing  on  stone  is  as  significant  as  the 
utterances  from  Sinai,  of  the  permanency  of  the 
Ten  Commandments,  and  their  essentially  moral 
nature.  They  are  a  transcript  of  the  moral  attri- 
butes of  God,  and  as  unchangeable  as  his  own  eter- 
nal nature.  Nothing  short  of  this  can  be  inferred 
from  the  material  and  the  writing. 


A   SACRED    REST.  33 

7.  The  same  is  taught  in  their  subsequent  deposit 
in  the  Ark,  called  for  this  very  reason  *'the  Ark  of 
the  Testimony."  The  ten  words  are  God's  testi- 
mony to  moral  purity  and  against  all  iniquity.  The 
Ark  is  the  most  sacred  of  all  the  Tabernacle  and  its 
furniture.  Its  location  within  the  vail,  the  material 
of  its  composition,  the  golden  cover  and  the  cheru- 
bim constituting  the  mercy  seat,  and  the  fact  that 
nothing  but  the  two  tables  was  permitted  to  be 
deposited  therein  —  all  conspire  to  enhance  the 
purity,  permanency,  and  sacredness  of  the  ten 
words.  The  entire  system  of  the  Tabernacle  service 
has  these^  tables  for  its  central  idea.  To  keep  un- 
tarnished the  tables  of  the  testimony ;  to  impress 
the  worshippers  with  the  profoundest  veneration  and 
reverence  for  them  ;  to  point  out  the  way  of  accept- 
able approach  into  the  holiest  of  all ;  and  to  pro- 
vide for  the  dissemination  of  their  contents  on  the 
swift  wings  of  the  divinely  constituted  and  qualified 
messengers  of  mercy,  this  is  the  life  and  soul  of  the 
symbolic  gospel  of  the  Tabernacle.  See,  for  more 
on  this  point,  "The  Tabernacle,"  recently  published 
at  No.  821  Chestnut  Street. 


34  THE  lord's  day 


CHAPTER    IV. 

A  SACRED  REST  PROVED  BY  NATURAL  RELIGION  AND 
PROFANE  HISTORY. 

The  design  has  been  expressed,  to  limit  the  dis- 
cussion to  Bible  arguments.  "  Above  and  beyond 
it  there  is  no  authority."  And  this  design  I  will 
adhere  to,  with  'but  little  deviation.  Nevertheless, 
you  will  indulge  me,  in  presenting  the  common  ar- 
gument in  favour  of  a  sacred,  religious  and  physicial 
rest,  deduced  from  natural  religion.  A  few  only  of 
the  leading  points  of  argument  can  be  compressed 
into  our  brief  space. 

1.  Physical  labour  is  a  necessity  to  man.  Let 
the  Deist  account  for  the  fact  as  he  may,  he  cannot 
deny  its  existence :  the  great  mass  of  mankind  are 
doomed  to  work  for  their  living. 

2.  This  doom  exhausts  their  physical  powers : 
labour  cannot  possibly  be  continuous  and  indefinite. 
Rest,  in  its  primary  sense  of  cessation  from  motion, 
there  must  be,  or  the  living,  human  machine  will 
wear  out  and  perish. 

3.  This  rest,  because  of  man's  very  extensive  as- 
sociation in  work  in  factories,  work-shops,  &c.  must 


A    SACRED    REST.  35 

be  simultaneous.     The  operators  must  begin,  and 
continue  and  cease  at  the  same  time. 

4.  Man  is  social:  he  must  live  in  society.  Mo- 
nasticism  is  a  sin  against  the  laws  of  nature  and  of 
nature's  God.  No  man  has  a  right,  as  we  have  seen 
before,  to  expatriate  himself  from  human  society  j 
for  then  he  must  perish,  and  suicide  is  a  crime. 

5.  Man  is  a  religious  being.  The  disposition  to 
venerate  and  adore  some  being  or  beings  superior 
to  himself  is  an  essential  element  of  his  nature, 
come  whence  it  may.  Neither  Deist  nor  atheist  can 
deny  this  and  express  his  denial  in  continuance. 
Witness  Hume  and  Voltaire.  Speculate  they  may, 
and  persuade  themselves  by  times  into  the  belief  in 
all  unbelief;  but  nature  will  arouse  them  from  the 
fond  dream  of  skepticism,  to  a  consciousness  of  their 
own  rational  nature  and  moral  accountability.  "  The 
spectre  conscience  starting  through  the  gloom ;  man ! 
we  shall  meet  again  beyond  the  tomb." 

6.  Man  is  social  in  religion.  The  world's  history 
is  the  proof.  In  all  pagan  antiquity,  social  religion 
displayed  its  amazing  power,  in  the  construction  of 
temples,  and  the  expenses  of  religious  worship. 
Their  principal  investments  of  capital  and  wealth 
were  in  these  very  things. 

T.  Time  is  an  indispensable  element  in  social  re- 
ligion. Convocation  must  take  place  and  duration. 
Whatever  be  the  forms  and  substance  of  their  re- 
ligion, they  must  come  together  and  remain  together 
for  some  time. 


36  THE  lord's  day 

8.  PlacBj  therefore,  is  as  necessary  as  time. 
Without  a  place  of  social  worship,  and  a  time,  the 
thing  itself  is  utterly  impossible.  Both  these  ele- 
ments areindispensable,  for  the  embodiment  in  action, 
of  the  most  powerful  and  predominant  principle  in 
man's  nature — his  religious  principle. 

9.  Conventional  agreement,  therefore,  is  a  neces- 
sity, to  social  worship.  There  must  be  a  time  and 
a  place  agreed  upon ;  when  and  where  the  people 
may  and  shall  assemble  together  for  sacred  worship. 

10.  The  first  three  remarks  above,  are  equally 
applicable  to  the  mind  as  to  the  body ;  the  mind 
must  work  ;  it  becomes  exhausted  ;  it  must  rest  that 
it  may  be  refreshed  and  qualified  for  renewed  action. 

11.  The  settlement  of  time  and  place  for  public, 
social  worship,  by  conventional  agreement,  involves 
the  cutting  up  of  time  into  sections.  For  if  no  day 
is  appointed  in  a  regular  succession,  convocations 
of  the  people  for  worship  soon  become  impractica- 
ble. One  part  are  working  in  the  shop  on  silver 
shrines  for  Diana,  whilst  othjers  are  at  the  temple. 
The  business  of  society  is  thus  thrown  into  inextri- 
cable confusion :  and  they  will  be  forced  to  fix  upon 
a  regular  time  for  rest  from  labour  and  devotion  to 
religion. 

12.  Thus  we  have  a  Sabbath  by  the  inherent  and 
unchangeable  laws  of  human  nature.  How  often 
it  shall  occur ;  whether  one  day  in  four,  or  five,  or 
six,  or  seven,  eight  or  ten,  will  be  somewhat  difficult 
to  determine ;   but  determined  it  must  be  ;   there  is 


A   SACRED    KEST.  37 

no  avoiding  it.  A  day  of  sacred  rest  man  must 
have. 

Now  from  these  elements,  every  one  of  which  is 
historically  true,  we  infer  that,  had  the  question 
been  left  to  human  experiment,  it  would  have  been 
found  that  one  day  in  seven  is  best  suited  to  all  the 
wants  of  man.  Long  periods  would  have  been  re- 
quired to  settle  the  question  by  experiment.  Phil- 
osophers would  have  wrangled  about  it  for  centuries, 
and  there  is  no  probability  that  they  would  have 
ever  come  to  a  unanimous  agreement  what  the  law 
of  nature  .on  this  subject  is.  The  fact,  however,  is, 
that  the  nearest  approach  to  agreement  is  for  the 
seventh  part  of  the  time.  We  assert,  however,  that 
this  is  the  result  of  the  primitive  law  or  rest  estab- 
lished in  Eden,  and  handed  down  in  imperfect  tra- 
ditions. Of  these  traditions  Owen  has  quoted  from 
Hesiod,  giving  both  Greek  and  English :  the  latter 
I  present  to  the  reader.  "  The  first,  the  fourth, 
and  the  seventh  day  is  sacred." 

"  The  seventh  again,  the  sacred  or  illustrious  light 
of  the  sun."     And  out  of  Homer, 

"  Then  came  the  seventh  day  that  is  sacred." 

Again,  "It  was  the  seventh  day,  wherein  all 
things  were  finished,  or  perfected."     Again, 

"  We  left  the  flood  of  Acheron  on  the  seventh 
day." 

He  adds  also  out  of  Linus, 

"  The  seventh  day,  therein  all  things  were  fin- 
ished." 

4 


38  THE  lord's  day. 

Again,  "  The  seventh  day  among  the  best  things, 
the  seventh  is  the  nativity  of  all  things."  . 

"  The  seventh  is  amongst  the  chiefest,  and  is  the 
perfect  day." 

He  quotes  the  Latin  of  Tibullus,  a  Roman  writer, 
speaking  of  the  "  Saturni  sacra  die" — the  holy  day 
of  Saturni — that  is,  Saturday :  and  Ovid,  speaking 
of  the  Sabbath — "  nee  te  peregrina  morentur  Sab- 
bata."     "^Nor  let  foreign  Sabbaths  detain  you." 

These  quotations  prove  simply,  that  in  the  remot- 
est pagan  antiquity,  the  seventh  day  was  known  as 
a  sacred  day:  and  those  who  may  consuJt  Owen's 
master  work,  will  see  abundant  proof  of  the  seventh 
being  the  most  generally  admitted  day  for  religious 
observances  the  world  over. 


A  SACKED   KBST.  39 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   TEN   WORDS — BIGHT   OP   THE   FOURTH    BY  PRE- 
SCRIPTION. 

The  Decalogue  has  been,  for  three  thousand  three 
hundred  and  fifty-six  years,  esteemed  and  held,  by 
all  who  knew  it,  as  a  brief  compend  of  moral  law. 
The  sentiments  of  the  few  infidels  which  lie  scat- 
tered along  this  vast  tract  of  time,  are  utterly  be- 
neath contempt  as  argument  against  the  ten  com- 
mandments. These  sacred  oracles  bear  down  all 
opposition  by  their  own  inherent  force,  from  their 
manifest  and  perfect  adaptation  to  man  in  all  possi- 
ble conditions.  They  are  perfectly  free  from  all 
specialty  that  can  limit  them  to  any  tribe,  people, 
or  nation.  In  principle  they  are  therefore  common 
to  the  race,  and  co-eval  with  its  existence.  Now, 
among  these  Ten,  and  central  to  them,  is  the  Fourth, 
which  was  first  divulged.  The  Sabbath  is  as  old  as 
the  finished  creation.  We  have  just  seen  its  coin- 
cidence with  the  dictates  of  nature  and  reason.  Not 
that  it  was  the  discovery  of  reason ;  but,  when  pro- 
posed to  reason,  secured  its  conviction  to  this  amount, 
that  it  is  a  law  of  God  the  Creator,  given  for  man's 


40  THE    lord's    day 

benefit.  It  has  date  as  a  law  5866  years  back.  It 
holds  the  place,  therefore,  by  right  of  prescription. 
Many  laws  on  human  statute  books  have  become 
obsolete,  from  mere  neglect,  although  never  form- 
ally repealed.  Not  so  this  Fourth  of  the  Ten. 
For  although  no  mention  of  it  is  made  in  the  his- 
tory of  Israel,  for  559  years — see  Num.  xxviii,  10, 
and  2  Kings  iv.  23 — yet  no  reasonable  pretence  has 
ever  been  set  up  or  can  be,  that  it  was  obsolete  and 
inoperative  during  nearly  six  centuries.  Another 
fact,  this,  for  those  to  study  who  allege  the  silence 
of  Scripture  (erroneously  too,  as  we  have  seen)  from 
Eden  to  the  wilderness  and  Sinai,  as  proof  against 
the  Sabbath-Bereshith,  or  Sabbath  of  the  begin- 
ning, so  called  by  Maimonides,  Abarbinel,  Manas- 
seli  Ben  Israel,  and  other  learned  Hebrew  commen- 
tators, who  affirm  this  law  to  be  co-eval  with  men. 
With  such  a  basis  for  prescriptive  right,  this  First- 
born of  commandments  may  Avell  challenge  contra- 
diction— "  He  crouched  as  a  lion,  and  as  an  old  lion, 
who  shall  rouse  him  up."  "The  sceptre  shall  not 
depart  from  Judah." 

The  logical  result  is,  that  the  burden  of  proof  is 
thrown  upon  the  assailants  of  the  Sabbatic  law. 
Its  friends  stand  behind  bulwarks  of  nearly  sixty 
centuries  standing  and  have  nothing  to  fear,  if  only 
they  prove  faithful  to  their  solemn  trust  and  stand  up 
for  Jesus  and  his  holy  day.  He  uttered  this  laAV  in 
thunder  tones  out  of  the  midst  of  the  smoke  on  the 
top  of  the  burning  mountain.     Whose  voice  is  this, 


A  SACRED   REST.  41 

that  seeks  to  drown  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God  ? 
He  wrote  these  words  with  his  own  finger  on  the 
tables  of  stone.  Who  is  this,  that  seeks  to  obliterate 
the  only  record  ever  written,  immediately,  by  the 
God  of  heaven  ?  Come  on,  gentlemen.  Bring  up 
your  chisels  and  mallets  and  cut  out  this  word  from 
the  centre  of  the  stone.  We  have  been  some  con- 
siderable time  in  possession,  bring  your  ejectment 
and  let  the  cause  be  fairly  tried.  Our  opponents 
allege 

1.  You  have  admitted  the  ten  words  to  be  the 
Federal  Constitution  of  the  Hebrew  Commonwealth. 
But  we  Americans,  Britons,  Frenchmen,  are  not 
citizens  of  the  Hebrew  Commonwealth;  and  are 
therefore  not  bound  by  this  constitution.  This  in- 
ference, we  admit,  would  be  fair,  logical  and  irre- 
fragable, were  it  not  for  the  single  lapsus,  that  God 
has  given  to  us,  this  same  identical  constitution  for 
our  government,  under  himself  as  the  Governor  over 
the  nations.  He  had  given  the  same  substance,  as 
the  constitution  of  government  to  the  nations  before 
the  flood,  to  the  patriarchal  governments  from  Noah 
to  Moses:  to  the  Assyrian,  the  Egyptian,  the  Greek, 
the  Roman,  and  now  to  the  French,  the  British,  the 
American ;  to  all  the  nations,  for  He  is  Lord  of  all. 
Glaringly  false,  therefore,  is  the  covert  assumption, 
in  this  argument,  that  the  ten  words  were  given 
exclusively '  to  Israel — to  Israel  and  to  no  other 
nation.  This  we  never  affirmed,  but  have  always 
denied.     The  argument  therefore  rests  wholly  on  a 

4* 


42  THE  lord's  day 

false  assumption ;  and  its  inference  must,  therefore, 
be  wholly  false.  It  ought  to  stand  thus.  God  has 
given  to  France,  England,  America  and  all  nations, 
the  same  precise  elements  of  moral  truth,  as  their 
constitutional  and  elementary  law ;  therefore,  all 
nations  are  bound  to  regulate  all  their  legislation, 
according  to  these  eternal  and  unchangeable  princi- 
ples of  moral  truth.  From  this  it  must  follow,  as 
a  corollary  inevitable,  that  wherein  any  nation  leg- 
islates and  governs  contrary  to  this  transcript  of 
the  divine  perfections,  it  is  sinful — it  is  rebellion 
against  God,  and  must  bring  distress  upon  the 
people,  and,  in  the  end,  ruin  upon  the  government: 
for  we  ought  to  obey  God  rather  than  men.  If 
human  governors  run  counter  to  the  ten  words,  it 
is  tyranny ;  for  God  has  never  given  them  such 
authority ;  and  obedience  to  God  then  is  resist- 
ance to  tyrants.  And  this  is  the  only  sense,  in 
which  there  is  such  a  thing,  as  the  right  of  revo- 
lution by  force  of  arms ;  and  thus  it  is,  that  an  ap- 
peal to  arms  is  carrying  the  cause  to  the  highest 
court. 

2.  But  we  are  told,  there  are  a  great  many  mod- 
ifications, additions,  alterations,  amendments  to  the 
ten  words,  utterly  inapplicable  to  us  and  to  other 
nations ;  and  therefore  we  cannot  admit  their  bind- 
ing force.  For  example,  this  very  law  of  the  fourth 
commandment  is  punished  with  death.  .  Is  every 
man  who  gathers  an  armful  of  sticks  on  Sunday,  to 
be  stoned  to  death  ? 


A  SACRED   REST.  43 

This  brings  up  a  legion  of  objections;  and  de- 
mands a  very  deliberate  response.  In  the  close  of 
this  paper,  I  can  only  lay  down  the  general  princi- 
ple, on  which  they  must  all  be  disposed  of.  Our 
answers  in  detail  will  largely  correspond  with  the 
views  of  the  objector  himself;  but  for  very  different 
reasons. 

Our  principle  is  this — that  legislation  is  clearly 
distinct  from  fundamental  law.  If  America  has 
learned  one  lesson  of  paramount  importance  to  her 
and  to  the  world,  it  is  this  :  that  a  Constitution  of 
elementary  moral  principles,  rising  high  above  all 
governmental  officers — legislative,  judicial,  execu- 
tive— is  necessary  to  the  public  safety.  No  sooner 
had  she  emerged  from  the  Red  Sea  of  a  bloody 
Revolution — rather,  I  should  say,  whilst  still  en- 
closed within  the  blood-stained  walls — she  groped 
around  in  search  of  some  rock  foundation  on  which 
to  erect  the  temple  of  freedom.  Deeply  did  the 
men  of  that  day  feel,  amid  the  tremendous  surges 
of  that  agitated  sea,  that  the  quicksands  of  human 
ignorance  and  passion  could  never  bear  up  the  glo- 
rious structure  of  Constitutional  Liberty  which 
they  were  erecting  as  a  Pharos,  to  guide  the  en- 
•thralled  nations  into  the  haven  of  peace  and  a  gov- 
ernment of  law.  The  yearnings  of  their  souls 
went  forth  continually  after  a  system  of  elementary 
principles  which  should  constitute  the  rule  of  all 
rulers  and  the  guide  of  all  the  people.  A  Consti- 
tution  involving   the  pure  moral   elements   of  all 


44  THE  lord's  day 

government  they  laboured  after,  and  in  thirteen 
years  they  found  it,  and  founded  it  upon  the  broad 
basis  of  the  people's  will,  whose  voice,  coalescing 
with  the  voice  from  Sinai,  became  to  them  the  voice 
of  God. 


A   SACRED    REST.  45 


CHAPTER  YI. 

ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  SABBATH,  FROM  THE  CHARACTER 

OF  ITS  OPPOSERS. 

The  fruits  prove  the  tree — good  or  bad. 

"By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,"  is  a  very 
simple  rule  of  judgment.  It  is  the  principle  of 
all  inductive  science.  It  was  not  discovered  nor 
invented  by  Bacon.  Newton's  head  was  not  its 
original  source.  These  reformers  of  philosophy, 
renovators  of  the  true  law  of  philosophizing,  found 
it  in  the  Bible,  and  their  application  of  it  to  nat- 
ural science  placed  them  at  its  head.  But  mani- 
festly, this  maxim  of  our  Saviour  is  an  inductive 
process.  Like  causes  produce  like  effects :  and  I 
infer  the  nature  of  the  cause  from  its  effect.  If 
this  shrub  bear  figs,  it  is  not  a  thistle  :  if  this  one^ 
produce  grapes,  it  is  a  vine,  and  not  a  thorn-bush. 
If  blasphemy  flow  from  this  man's  mouth,  he  is 
not  a  holy  man  with  the  fear  of  God  before  his 
eyes  and  the  love  of  God  in  his  heart.  If  this 
man  wash  his  hands  from  keeping  of  bribes  ;  if  he 
do  good  to  men  as  he  hath  opportunity;  if  he  avoid 
all  evil  and  appearance   of  evil ;   if  he  visit  the 


46  THE  lord's  day 

fatherless  and  the  widows  in  their  affliction,  and 
keep  himself  unspotted .  from  the  world  ;  ye  shall 
know  him  by  his  fruits ;  he  is  a  good  man.  If  a 
man  say,  "I  love  God,"  and  yet  hateth  his  brother, 
you  cannot  believe  his  words;  you  cannot  do  other- 
wise than  believe  his  actions :  you  judge  the  tree 
by  its  fruits.  In  the  absence  of  holy  living,  no 
man  can  have  m  himself,  or  give  unto  others,  proof 
that  he  is  a  converted  man  and  on  the  way  to 
heaven.  But  if  his  walk  be  holy ;  his  life  pure ; 
his  whole  course  of  action  conformed  to  the  law 
and  love  of  the  Lord;  inductive  science  infers, 
without  a  faltering  fear,  that  he  is  a  changed  man. 
Now  it  is  by  furnishing  the  facts  for  this  philosophy 
that  every  true  Christian  makes  himself,  or  rather 
is  made,  by"  Divine  grace,  a  preacher  of  Christ's 
gospel ;  he  lets  his  light  so  shine  before  men,  that 
they  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion  that  his  religion 
is  from  above ;  and  they  are  constrained  to  glorify 
his  Father  in  heaven. 

Now,  if  we  apply  this  first  law  of  experimental 
philosophy — of  inductive  science — to  the  question 
whether  the  Bible  is  from  God,  or  whether  it  is  an 
imposition  upon  the  credulity  of  mankind,  we  shall 
reach  a  satisfactory  result.  We  have  only  to  glance 
for  a  brief  moment  at  the  character  of  the  friends 
of  the  Holy  Book,  and  then  at  that  of  its  enemies, 
to  reach  this  conclusion.  Reader !  just  look  around 
you.  There  stand  the  •  men  and  the  women  by 
thousands  who  reverence  this  Book,  and  evince  this 


A   SACRED   REST.  47 

reverential  regard  by  reading  and  studying  it  with 
all  the  helps  within  their  reach :  they  attend  the 
exposition  of  it  by  men  of  educated  and  trained 
minds,  wholly  devoted  to  this  work :  they  ponder 
it  themselves ;  it  is  their  daily  companion  in  the 
house  and  by  the  way.  Everything  they  can  do  is 
done  to  increase  their  acquaintance  with  its  precious 
contents.  Moreover,  they  practise  its  heavenly 
doctrines — these  are  they  which  follow  the  Lamb 
whithersoever  he  goeth.  Now  look  at  their  moral 
and  religious  character.  How  do  they  stand  in- 
spection ?  Are  they,  as  a  class,  unreliable  men  and 
women  ?  Can  you  rest  upon  their  moral  integrity? 
Will  you  admit  their  testimony  in  court  as  decisive 
of  the  most  important  interests  of  their  fellow-men? 
When  charity  utters  her  calls  to  the  relief  of  suf- 
fering humanity,  do  you  find  a  listening  ear  ?  Who 
feeds  the  hungry  poor  ?  Who  clothes  the  naked  ? 
Who  visits  the  sick  and  afflicted  ? 

Now  turn  to  the  other  side.  Mark  the  opponents 
of  the  Bible  and  scoffers  at  the  doctrines  it  contains. 
Do  none  of  them  blaspheme  God  and  curse  men  ? 
Do  none  of  them  give  or  take  bribes  at  elections  or 
in  the  lobbies  of  legislative  halls  ?  Are  they  active 
in  staying  the  progress  of  vice  and  immorality? 
Do  they,  as  a  class,  set  a  beautiful  example  of  moral 
purity,  and  stand  distinguished  for  all  the  moral 
virtues,  so  as  to  abash  the  workers  of  iniquity,  and 
commend,  by  their  own  example,  the  ways  of  holi- 


48-  THE  lord's  day 

ness  and  truth ;  and  thus  constrain  men  to  glorify 
God  in  a  pure  life  ?  Reader  !  you  know  the  re- 
verse of  all  this  is  true;  the  notorious  facts  con- 
stantly passing  before  your  eyes  demonstrate  the 
haters  of  the  Bible  to  be  far  different.  The 
inference  you  cannot  resist :  it  follows  by  the 
resistless  power  of  eternal  logic.  The  Bible  must 
be  a  good  book,  because  its  friends  and  admirers 
are  good  men;  its  enemies  and  revilers  are  bad 
men. 

Parallel  with  this  is  our  argument.  What  is  the 
moral  character  of  the  friends  and  the  enemies  of 
the  Sabbath  day  respectively  ? 

Again,  Reader !  look  around  you.  What  are 
the  facts  ?  We  observe,  first,  that  the  day  of  sa- 
cred rest  has  a  civil,  even  a  worldly  aspect,  as  we 
have  seen.  Human  legislation  has  embraced  it,  as 
it  has  the  other  commandments,  because  they  bear 
favourably  upon  the  social  and  pecuniary  benefits 
of  the  country :  and  therefore  men,  in  very  great 
numbers,  favour  the  general  observance  of  the  day. 
AVithout  taking  particular  interest  in  its  religious 
influences,  they  see  and  recognize  its  benefits  in 
other  regards,  and  give  it,  for  the  sake  of  these,  a 
general  approbation.  Now  among  this  large  class, 
we  do  not  deny  but  that  some  may  be  found  of  loose 
morality,  and  may  be  cited  against  us.  This  would 
be  unfair :  for  this  whole  class,  after  all,  are  not 
friends  of  the  sacred  day  of  rest  in  our  meaning 
of  it :   but  only  of  one  aspect,  and  that  the  least 


A    SACRED    REST.  49 

important,  of  its  benefits.  The  only  fair  compari- 
son must  be  limited  to  those  who  take  the  law  in  its 
totality,  as  a  Divine  ordinance  requiring  rest  physi- 
cal ;  but  whose  main  substance,  spirit,  and  life  lie 
in  its  religious  character,  as  a  day  kept  holy  to  the 
Lord.  They  only  are  friends  of  the  Sabbath  who 
adhere  to  it,  as  it  is  a  day  of  rest  from  worldly  em- 
ployments and  recreations,  and  of  religious  conse- 
cration to  the  worship  and  service  of  God.  Now, 
we  ask  you  to  look  around  and  mark  the  moral  con- 
duct of  this  large  class  of  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren. Where  do  you  find  them  on  the  holy  day  ? 
Roaming  the  streets  ?  crowding  the  rum  shops  and 
beer  houses,  in  violation  of  Penn's  Great  Law  ? 
In  riot  and  dissipation  around  these  haunts  of  vice? 
Rushing  to  the  country  on  fast  horses  or  steam  cars, 
to  the  infinite  annoyance  of  peaceful  dwellers  and 
their  fruit-beds,  orchards,  and  gardens?  In  the 
lock-ups  on  Sunday  nights  and  in  the  alderman's 
office  on  Monday  morning  ?  Or  do  you  find  them 
in  the  early  day  at  home — sweet,  lovely  home — 
"reading  the  Scriptures  of  truth,"  as  Penn  directs 
and  recommends — and  the  children  conning  over 
their  Sunday-school  lessons  ?  Then  passing  quietly, 
cheerfully,  peaceably  to  the  Sunday-school  room — 
then  to  the  church  and  its  sacred  exercises  ?  Then, 
the  worship  over,  returning  in  the  same  order  to 
the  delightful  home  and  its  holy  quiet.  Again  you 
see  the  repetition  of  the  sacred  solemnities  and  the 
day  closing  in  the  beautiful  sunshine  of  heaven's 

6 


50  THE    lord's    day 

approbation.  On  other  days,  diligent  in  business ; 
honest  in  their  dealings ;  never  indulging  in  profane 
or  obscene  language ;  kind  to  the  poor ;  given  to 
hospitality ;  always  ready  for  every  good  work ; 
fervent  in  spirit,  serving  the  Lord. 

Now,  how  is  it  with  the  opponents  of  the  Sabbath 
day?  Strange  that  it  should  be  so;  but  do  not  the 
Jews,  who  still  deny  the  Lord,  abhor  his  holy  day  ? 
Do  not  Deists — deniers  of  the  Divine  inspiration 
of  the  Scriptures;  atheists — deniers  of  the  being 
of  a  God ;  do  not  profane  swearers ;  do  not  gam- 
blers ;  do  not  corrupters  of  the  public  morals  and 
murderers  of  thousands  by  the  sale  of  alcoholic 
poisons ;  do  not  the  entire  body  of  their  customers 
and  victims ;  do  not  debauchees,  forgers,  burglars, 
incendiaries,  and  all  persons  of  bad  moral  character, 
— do  they  not  all  affiliate,  and  unite,  and  combine 
"  together  against  the  Lord,  and  against  his  anointed ; 
Let  us  break  their  bands  asunder,  and  cast  away 
their  cords  from  us  ?"  These  inuendoes  are  general 
truths.  The  few  among  them  who  do  not  so  affiliate 
and  combine,  are  most  assuredly  the  exceptions  rare. 
In  reference  to  the  mass,  this  is  no  slander,  unless 
in  the  sense  of  the  eifete  English  maxim,  "  The 
greater  the  truth  the  greater  the  libel."  Ee  it  that 
they  will  take  offence  at  this  position.  If  it  were 
not  true  they  would  have  little  occasion  for  offence, 
and  less  profit  from  their  displeasure.  But  they 
will  curse  you.  Very  well,  "  The  curse  causeless 
shall  not  come."     "  Shimei  cursed  David  and  cast 


A   SACRED   REST.  61 

stones;"  and  David  said,  " Let  him  curse/'  And 
Solomon  says,  ''  The  curse  of  the  Lord  is  in  the 
house  of  the  wicked."  "The  Lord  turned  the 
curse  of  Balaam  into  a  blessing."  This  all  I  speak 
for  their  good.     See  Appendix  XL 


52  THE  lord's  day 


CHAPTER    yil. 


TION    OP    ISRAEL — THIS    CONSTITUTION,    PURELY 
RELIGIOUS  AND  MORAL. 

Ratification — The  commandments  means  tlio  ten — Adopted  not  by 
tribes,  but  as  a  nation — Examination  of  the  ten  words — The 
fourth  passed  by. 

We  have  seen,  from  Exod.  xix.  5-8,  that  God 
made  a  covenant  with  Israel,  before  the  utterance 
of  the  TEN  WORDS  from  the  summit  of  the  burning 
Mount ;  now  ^ye  affirm,  that  after  this  awful  and 
glorious  utterance,  this  covenant  was  more  formally 
confirmed  and  ratified  in  the  blood  of  typical  sacri- 
fice. Exod.  xxiv.  4,  5.  "  And  Moses  wrote  all  the 
words  of  the  law — 7.  And  he  took  the  book  of  the 
covenant,  and  read  in  the  audience  of  the  people : 
and  they  said.  All  that  the  Lord  hath  said  we  will 
do,  and  be  obedient.  And  Moses  took  the  blood 
and  sprinkled  it  on  the  people;  and  said,  Behold 
the  blood  of  the  covenant,  Avhich  the  Lord  hath  made 
with  you  concerning  all  these  words."  Another 
ratification  of  this  federal  compact — this  national 
constitution,  took  place  forty  years  afterward  on  the 
plains  of  Moab:  Deut.  xxix.  1,  2-14,  "Neither  with 


A    SACRED    REST.  .  53 

you  only  do  I  make  this  covenant  and  this  oath" — 
I  know,  it  may  be  affirned  that  other  items  are 
probably  included  in  this  covenant,  vi.  "These  are 
the  words  of  the  covenant,  which  the  Lord  com- 
manded Moses  to  make  with  the  children  of  Israel 
in  the  land  of  Moab,  beside  the  covenant  which  he 
made  with  them  in  Horeb."  I  answer,  if  other 
matter  is  here  included,  the  commandments  are 
specifically  referred  to  Chap,  xxvii.  1.  "  Keep  all 
the  commandments  which  I  command  you  this  day." 
Now,  when  the  commandments  are  spoken  of  by 
themselves  ;  or  in  connection  with  other  terms — as 
in — Deut.  viii.  11,  "Beware  that  thou  forget  not 
the  Lord  thy  God,  in  not  keeping  his  command- 
ments, and  his  judgments  and  his  statutes."  So  in 
Deut.  iv.  13,  "And  he  declared  unto  you  his  cov- 
enant, which  he  commanded  you  to  perform,  even 
ten  commandments :  and  he  wrote  them  upon  two 
tables  of  stone:"  and  in  the  next  verse,  ^'statutes 
and  judgments''  are  contradistinguished  from  com- 
mandments : — whenever  these  are  mentioned,  our 
position  here  is,  that  the  ten  words  of  the  two  tables 
are  meant.  Such  is  the  New  Testament  usage. 
Mark  x.  19,  "Thou  knowest  the  commandments. 
Do  not  commit  adultery.  Do  not  kill.  Do  not  steal," 
&c.  So  Luke,  i.  6,  "  And  they  were  both  righteous 
before  God,  walking  in  all  the  commandments,  and 
ordinances  of  the  Lord  blameless."  Jno.  xiv.  21, 
"  He  that  hath  my  commandments  and  keepeth 
them,  he  it  is  that  loveth  me."  Such  is  also  the 
6  * 


.54  THE  lord's  day 

Old  Testament  usage :  the  word  occurs  in  Ps.  cxix. 
eighteen  times,  and  in  every  instance,  in  reference  to 
the  ten  words.  "  And  he — God,  wrote  on  the  tables 
(which  Moses  hewed  out)  according  to  the  first  writ- 
ing, the  ten  commandments,  which  the  Lord  spoke 
unto  you  in  the  mount,"  &c.  Deut.  x.  4.  Beyond 
doubt,  by  the  phrase,  the  commandments,  the  law 
of  the  two  tables  is  meant.  And  it  is  of  these  our 
Lord  declares,  Mat.  v.  18, — "  Till  heaven  and  earth 
pass,  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no  wise  pass  from 
the  law,  till  all  be  fulfilled."  And  Luke  xvi.  17, 
"And  it  is  easier  for  heaven  and  earth  to  pass,  than 
one  tittle  of  the  law  to  fail."  "The  word  of  our 
God  shall  stand  for  ever."     Our  conclusion  is  safe. 

The  TEN  COMMANDMENTS  are  THE  FEDERAL  CON- 
STITUTION of  the  Hebrew  commonwealth.  They 
constitute  the  fundamental  law  of  his  people :  they 
became  such  by  the  appointment  of  God  and  the 
election  of  the  people.  They  have  been  solemnly 
inaugurated  as  such,  by  a  formal  federal  compact : 
— an  inauguration,  which,  for  solemnity,  pomp, 
grandeur  and  glory,  has  no  parallel  in  the  world's 
history. 

A  few  words,  as  to  this  adoption  of  the  federal 
compact  seem  proper ;  to  guard  against  misappre- 
hension and  mischief  therefrom.  1.  No  convention 
or  committee  of  the  thirteen  tribes  met,  deliberated 
and  drew  up  the  original  draft  of  this  constitution, 
and  thus  first  gave  it  form.  This  was  done  to  their 
hand  by  God  himself.     Herein  it  differs  from  the 


A   SACRED    REST.  55 

federal  constitution  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Common- 
wealth. Nevertheless  the  framers  of  our  constitu- 
tion, ever  and  anon,  felt  themselves  bound  and 
bounded  by  that  of  the  Hebrews.  I  say*  bound, 
because  these  wise  men,  like  all  wise  men  the  world 
over,  recognized  the  Decalogue, — that  is,  to  translate 
this  Greek  word  into  English,  the  ten  words,  as  a 
transcript  of  the  divine  attributes,  the  common  law 
of  humanity.  I  say  bounded — because  they  felt, 
that  no  moral  principle — no  political  doctrine  could 
be  found  outside  of  the  Hebrew  constitution — that 
is,  they  knew,  that  the  elements  of  all  moral  rules, 
requisite  for  human  society  and  its  governments, 
are  found  within  this  Hebrew  constitution. 

2.  It  was  federal — by  covenant,  in  the  strictest 
sense ;  God  offered  it  to  Israel,  with  a  guaranty  of 
protection,  peace,  prosperity,  happiness,  provided 
they  would  accept  and  keep  it  in  good  faith.  The 
people  consented,  and  assented,  and  pledged  them- 
selves to  obedience.  Thus  it  is  federal:  and  herein 
it  resembles  our  adoption  of  our  Constitution,  though 
differing  as  to  origin  :  and  not  much,  neither.  For 
what  God  did  for  Israel  by  miraculous  interposition, 
he  did  for  us  by  providential  arrangements,  ap- 
proaching to  the  miraculous.     He  hedged  up  our 

.  way  so  that  we  could  not  avoid  making  just  such  a 
Constitution. 

3.  The  Hebrew  people  compacted  with  themselves 
and  with  God  through  delegates  or  representatives — 
the  elders  of  the  people,  in  their  behalf,  signed  the 


66  THE  lord's  day 

bond  and  sealed  the  covenant  with  blood.  Herein 
our  case  and  theirs  agree,  except  in  the  matter  of 
typical  blood.  The  people,  by  their  representatives, 
adopted  the  Constitution. 

4.  The  Hebrew  Constitution  was  adopted,  not  by 
representatives  of  the  thirteen  Tribes  as  distinct 
and  organized  bodies,  but  by  the  elders  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Israel  as  a  nation — "  Ye  shall  be  unto  me  a 
kingdom  of  priests  and  an  lioly  nation.'''  Their 
tribal  distinctions  were  never  noticed  in  this  adopt- 
ing act ;  but  always  are  they  viewed  and  spoken  of 
as  one  people — a  nation — and  their  fundamental  law 
was  adopted  by  the  nation.  There  is  here  a  par- 
allelism between  these  thirteen  tribes  and  our  thir- 
teen States.  Our  Constitution  was  adopted,  not  by 
and  in  the  name  of  the  States  as  States :  not  one 
of  the  conventions  of  the  people  in  any  one  of  the 
States  ever  stated,  in  their  adopting  act,  that  they 
did  it  in  the  name  of  the  State,  but  always,  in  the 
name  of  the  People. 

That  the  Decalogue  is  a  summary  compend  of 
God's  moral  law,  is  and  always  has  been  the  senti- 
ment of  the  Christian  world.  Aware  I  am  that 
Rome,  as  she  ceased  to  be  a  true  Christian  Church, 
repudiated  the  second  commandment.  This  reform 
became  necessary  for  her  justification  in  the  worship 
of  and  by  images,  and  saints,  the  virgin  and  the 
host.  But  evangelical  Christendom,  with  such  few 
exceptions  as  are  scarcely  worthy  of  notice,  have 
sustained  the  ten  words,  as  containing  the  essence 


A   SACRED   REST.  57 

of  all  moral  truth.  The  usual  division  into  duties 
to  God  and  duties  to  man,  is  substantially  correct : 
the  first  table  containing  the  former,  and  the  second 
the  latter. 

Of  course  the  reader  does  not  expect,  here  and 
now,  an  exposition  of  the  Decalogue.  All  you  can 
expect  and  desire,  is  simply  such  a  brief  notice  of 
its  contents  as  the  proof  of  my  proposition  requires ; 
and  this  accompanied  by  evidence  that  no  peculiarity 
of  the  Jewish  people  is  contained  in  any  one  of  the 
ten ;  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  all  these  laws  are 
equally  applicable  to  all  men  and  nations  as  to  the 
Hebrew  nation.  With  this  in  view,  the  method  is 
exceedingly  simple,  viz.,  to  take  up  the  precepts 
seriatim ;  leaving,  however,  the  fourth  to  the  last 
place.  And  also  let  us  bear  in  mind  that  all  the 
ten  are  negative  precepts,  except  the  fifth  and  the 
former  hpJf  of  the  fourth.  And  that,  therefore, 
the  common  sense  rule  must  be  adopted  in  their  in- 
terpretation ;  that  wdiere  a  sin  is  forbidden,  the  con- 
trary duty  is  (Commanded ;  and  w^iere  a  duty  is 
commanded,  the  contrary  sin  is  forbidden.  And 
moreover,  that  all  the  Ten  are  addressed  to  the  in- 
dividual :  if  every  person  obeys  the  law,  the  social 
body  obeys  it,  for  society,  governments,  nations,  are 
made  up  of  individuals. 

The  first  commandment  is,  "  Thou  shalt  have  no 
other  gods  before  me."  Jehovah  here  asserts  his 
right  to  the  worship  and  adoration  of  every  individ- 
ual, to  the  exclusion  of  everything  which  men  or 


58  THE  lord's  day 

devils  may  set  up  as  gods.  Here  is  the  prime  ele- 
ment of  religious  obligation.  Nothing  ceremonial 
here :  nothing  peculiar  to  the  Jew.  Nothing  but 
what  is  the  duty  of  every  rational  and  moral  agent 
in  the  universe. 

The  second — "  Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee 
any  graven  image,  or  any  likeness  of  anything  that 
is  in  heaven  above,  or  that  is  in  the  earth  beneath, 
or  that  is  in  the  waters  under  the  earth.  Thou  shalt 
not  bow  down  thyself  to  them  nor  serve  them," 
This  is  the  commandment,  as  distinguished  from  the 
reason  enforcing  it.  It  is  obviously  counterpart  to 
the  first.  It  forbids  the  substitution  of  anything  in 
the  place  of  God  as  an  object  of  religious  worship 
and  adoration : — forbids  idolatry  in  all  and  every 
form.  Is  there  anything  here  peculiar  to  the  Israel- 
ite? Or  is  it  not  a  duty,  proper  to  every  moral 
creature  ?  All  men  and  all  nations  and  at  all  times 
are  equally  bound  by  it.  And  the  reason  is  equally 
general,  "For  I,  the  Lord  thy  God  am  a  jealous 
God,  visiting  the  iniquities  of  the  fathers  upon  the 
children,  unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation  of 
them  that  hate  me ;  and  showing  mercy  unto  thou- 
sands of  them  that  love  me  and  keep  my  command- 
ments." Here  is  no  allusion  even  to  any  peculiar 
claim  or  obligation  upon  the  Jew.  No  ceremonial 
institute  is  here.  Everything  affirmed  or  implied  is 
common  to  all  the  race  of  Adam. 

The  tJiird — "  Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  the 
Lord  thy  God  in  vain,  for  the  Lord  will  not  hold 


A   SACRED    REST.  59 

him'"guiltless  that  taketh  his  name  in  vain."  Here  is 
a  purely  moral  duty  enjoined — reverence  in  the  use 
of  the  holy  names  of  God.  If  this  be  not  a  moral 
and  religious  duty,  "what  can  be  ?  And  where  is  there 
anything  ceremonial  or  peculiar  to  the  Israelite  in 
it  ?  Was  there  ever  a  time,  or  will  there  ever  be  a 
time  when  the  individual,  or  a  nation  and  people 
where  this  duty  was  not  binding  ?  The  allegation 
that  it  is  a  law  peculiar  to  the  Jewish  people  is  as 
absurd  as  it  is  false.  Can  blasphemy,  profanity, 
perjury  ever  cease  to  be  sinful  ?  Satan  himself  has 
not  brazen  falsehood  enough  to  affirm  it. 

The  fifth,  "  Honour  thy  father  and  thy  mother : 
that  thy  days  may  be  long  upon  the  land  which 
the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee."  •  This  is  the  only 
command  purely  positive  in  its  form.  It  contains 
the  principle  of  subordination  to  lawful  authority. 
It  is  the  basis  of  all  government  in  the  hands  of 
men.  Without  it  human  society  is  impossible ;  and, 
of  course,  the  continuance  of  the  race  would  be  im- 
possible. Is  the  basis  of  all  social  obligation  a 
peculiarity  of  the  Hebrew  nation  ? — a  mere  Jewish 
municipal  regulation  ?    Silly  !  simply  silly  assertion. 

But  a  learned  Scotch  divine  has  caught  a  Jew 
here,  in  the  promise  of  long  life  and  prosperity — 
"  The  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  given 
thee,"  he  says  means  nothing  but  Canaan;  and  he 
avers,  God  never  gave  the  land  of  Canaan  to  him, 
therefore  he,  not  being  a  heritor  of  the  land,  cannot 
be  bound  to   obey  his  own   father  or  mother,  or 


60  THE   lord's   day 

Queen  Victoria  herself!  Beautiful  logic!  Pecu- 
liarly beautiful  in  the  land  of  Scotland  which,  if  we 
mistake  not,  God  gave  to  Knox,  Chalmers  and  Mc- 
Leod.  Does  this  gentleman  believe,  tliis  is  the 
interpretation  given  in  the  133d  question  of  the 
Larger  Catechism,  which  he  has  solemnly  bound 
himself  to  hold  and  teach  ?  Or  does  he  not  know 
it  is  the  contradictory  of  it  ?  And  assuredly  it  is 
as  absurd  as  it  is  novel.  The  land  which  the  Lord 
giv.eth  to  any  man,  is  the  land  where  he  lives. 
There  is  not  a  hint  of  its  limitation  to  Canaan.  It 
is  equally  applicable  to  all  the  dwellers  on  earth,  as 
it  was  to  the  Jew  atj»  Sinai :  and  the  man  who  denies 
the  moral  obligation  of  this  commandment,  will,  if 
consistent,  abrogate  all  law  and  all  human  society. 

Sixth.  "■  Thou  shalt  not  kill."  Is  this  a  moral 
law  ?  or  a  Jewish  ceremonial  institute  ? 

Seventh.  "  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery."  Is 
this  too  a  Jewish  ceremonial  ?  Then  how  can  it 
bind  a  Scotch  doctor  of  divinity  ?  And  are  all  but 
Jews  free  from  this  badge  of  slavery  to  a  foreign 
yoke? 

Eighth.  '' Thou  shalt  not  steal."  And  is  honesty 
exclusively  a  Jewish  virtue,  and  all  the  rest  of  man- 
kind left  free  to  steal  ? 

Ninth.  ^'  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against 
thy  neighbour."  This  too  was  buried  with  Christ 
in  his  grave,  and  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  these 
dead  statutes  of  a  dead  rehgion.     . 

Tenth.   "Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbour's 


A    SACKED    REST.  61- 

house ;  thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbour's  wife ; 
nor  his  man  servant,  nor  his  maid  servant,  nor  his 
ox,  nor  his  ass,  nor  anything  that  is  thy  neigh- 
bour's." 

Are  these  hankerings  after  my  neighbour's  prop- 
erty sins  only  in  a  Jew ;  and  are  all  men  besides  at 
liberty  to  covet  with  impunity  ?  But  I  forbear. 
These  nine  precepts  are  religiously  and  morally 
binding  upon  all  men  in  all  ages  of  the  world. 
There  is  not  one  principle  or  phase  of  an  idea  in 
the  whole  that  is  peculiar  to  Israel.  This  has  al- 
ways been  the  sentiment  of  evangelical  Christen- 
dom. 
6 


62  THE  lord's  day 


CHAPTEK  yill. 

THE  FEDERAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  ISRAEL  PURELY 
MORAL,  CONTINUED  —  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT 
ANALYZED. 

We  have  demonstrated  the  moral  nature,  and, 
therefore,  the  binding  obligation  of  all  these  nine 
words  upon  all  mankind.  It  remains  to  analyze 
the  Fourth,  which,  in  more  senses  than  one,  is  the 
central  commandment.  It  is  so  in  position,  physi- 
cally, as  it  were.  It  is  so  as  to  its  moral  substance ; 
for  it  includes  duties  to  God,  and  also  some  of  our 
duties  to  man. 

The  commandment  involves  five  distinct  points, 
viz.  : 

1.  First,  Remember  the  day  of  the  Sabbath. 

2.  The  purpose  or  object — to  keeiJ  it  holy. 

3.  Rest  implies  previous  labour. 

4.  From  all  labour  there  must  be  a  total  cessa- 
tion. 

5.  The  reason  enforcing  the  precept. 
1.  Remember  the  day  of  the  Sabbath. 

We  translate  the  Hebrew  article,  as  it  gives  di- 
rection to  the -central  thought.     "Remember  the 


A   SACRED    REST.  63 

day  of  the  Rest,"  obviously  refers  to  it  as  previ- 
ously known  and  now  recalled.  It  thus  gives  point 
to  the  imperative  word,  Remember.  And  here  we 
must  be  indulged  in  a  little  metaphysics.  Memory 
is  that  power  of  the  mind  by  which  we  have  a 
knowledge  of  things  gone  by  and  viewed  in  past 
time.  It  is  well  defined — Conception,  with  a  feel- 
ing of  relation  to  past  time :  and  it  has  two  dis- 
tinctions, created  by  the  two  laws  of  suggestion, 
which  regulate  the  introduction  of  thoughts  into 
the  mind ;  viz.,  nearness  in  time  and  place ;  and 
resemblance.  The  memory  of  contiguity,  or  near- 
ness, is  the  most  common,  and  characterizes  the  un- 
educated mind.  The  memory  that  calls  up  thoughts 
by  resemblance  is  the  scientific — the  philosophic. 
Both  kinds  are  only  partly  voluntary.  We  cannot 
call  up  a  former  thought  by  an  act  of  volition  di- 
rect. The  efi'ort  to  do  so  is  reminiscence^  and  im- 
plies a  feeling  of  want  and  vague  notion  about 
something  capable  of  supplying  it.  Hence  desire 
holds  the  mind  in  expectancy.  Things  desirable 
are  cherished  and  retained,  and  so  become  recallable 
by  contiguity.  Things  undesirable — for  which,  from 
whatever  reason,  we  have  no  desire — are  not  re- 
tained, secure  no  attentio7i,  or  but  little,  and  so  pass 
away  beyond  the  mind's  purview  and  are  lost. 
Such,  by  reason  that  the  carnal  mind  is  enmity 
against  God,  is  the  fate  of  the  sacred  duties  of  the 
Sabbath  day.  The  Sabbath  is  not  to  it  "a  delight. 
— the  holy  of  the  Lord,  honourable;"  its  duties  are 


64  THE  lord's  day 

ignored,  because  the  Lord,  whose  day  it  is,  appears 
to  careless  men  as  a  root  out  of  a  dry  ground,  hav- 
ing no  form  nor  comeliness.  Hence  the  necessity 
of  this  arrest  of  attention ;  "  Remember  the  day 
of  the  rest."  Forgetfulness  results  from  want  of 
desire^  and  want  of  desire  from  indifference,  dis- 
relish, want  of  adaptation  of  the  objects  to  promote 
the  mind's  enjoyment.  Now,  in  spiritual  things, 
this  defect  lies  in  the  heart's  alienation  from  God. 
"  They  have  both  seen  and  hated  both  me  and  my 
Father,"  and  therefore  the  Lord's  day  and  its  sacred 
duties,  so  delightful  and  so  desirable  to  true  Chris- 
tians, excite  no  interest,  but  disgust  rather.  "  When 
will  the  new  moon  [which  was  a  Sabbath  peculiar 
to  Jews]  be  gone,  that  we  may  sell  corn  ?  and  the 
Sabbath,  that  we  may  set  forth  Avheat?"  Am.  viii. 
5.  These  people's  desires  are  not  set  on  sacred 
things,  but  on  worldly  aggrandizement — "  to  buy 
and  sell  and  get  gain" — this  is  everything;  and  so 
"  they  make  the  ephah  small,  and  the  shekel  great, 
and  falsify  the  balances  by  deceit,  that  they  may 
buy  the  poor  for  silver,  and  the  needy  for  a  pair  of 
shoes."  Hence  the  necessity  of  a  reminder.  Be- 
yond doubt,  the  command  to  remember  is  designed, 
because  needed,  as  a  prophylactic  remedy  against 
neglect. 

2.  The  purpose  for  which  we  are  commanded  to 
remember  it,  is  "to  keep  it  holy."  We  have  already 
remarked,  that  time  is  incapable  of  a  moral  quahty. 
Holiness  is  an  attribute  of  an  intelligent  moral  being 


A   SACRED    REST.  65 

only.  Time  is  consecrated  or  kept  holy  when  we 
spend  it  in  holy,  religious  exercises.  No  better  ac- 
count of  this  matter  can  he  desired,  than  Isaiah's. 
Chap.  Iviii.  13,  ''  If  thou  turn  away  thy  foot  from 
the  Sabbath,  from  doing  thy  pleasure  on  my  holy 
day :  and  call  the  Sabbath  a  delight,  the  holy  of 
the  Lord  honourable;  and  shalt  honour  him,  not 
finding  thine  own  pleasure,  nor  speaking  thine  own 
words" — Ivi.  2,  "Blessed  is  the  man, — that  keepeth 
the  Sabbath  from  polluting  it."  Is  time  capable  of 
moral  turpitude  ?  What  is  time  ?  An  intelligent, 
rational,  moral  agent  ?  You  see  the  absurdity.  The 
only  positive  sanctification  conceivable,  is  the  devo- 
tion of  ourselves  to  the  Avorship,  the  praise  and 
glorifying  of  God  : — "  Thou  shalt  delight  thyself  in 
the  Lord."  "It  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy 
God  " — appropriated  by  himself,  and  to  himself,  for 
his  most  holy  worship. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  enter  at  large  into  the 
positive  duties  of  the  holy  day ;  but  to  prove  it  a 
moral  law,  prescribed  by  his  Creator  for  the  good  of 
man.  But  now,  if  the  day  is  to  be  spent  in  intel- 
lectual, moral  and  religious  culture,  and  the  worship 
of  God,  for  his  glory  and  our  good,  it  cannot  be 
spent  in  servile  labour,  in  secular  and  worldly  pur- 
suits. This  leads  us  to  the  negative  part  of  our 
analysis. 

3.  Rest  implies  previous  action,  and  cessation 
therefrom.  "  Six  days  shalt  thou  labour  and  do  all 
thy  work ;  but  the  seventh  is  the  Sabbath  of  the 


bb  THE   LORD  S    DAY 

Lord  tliy  God :  in  it  thou  slialt  not  do  any  work, 
thou,  nor  thy  son,  nor  thy  daughter,  thy  man-ser- 
vant, nor  thy  maid-servant,  nor  thy  cattle,  nor  thy 
stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates."  Total  suspension 
of  secular  business  is  commanded.  This  is  the  in- 
dispensable negative  side  of  the  question.  Whether 
the  positive  part  even  here,  is  a  command — "  Six 
days  shalt  thou  labour  and  do  all  thy  work,"  I  shall 
not  discuss ;  but  only  say,  I  see  no  good  reason  to 
deny  it.  Industry  is  certainly  a  Christian  virtue — 
a  duty  binding  upon  all  to  whom  any  talent  whatever 
is  committed — "  Occupy  till  I  come."  If  " diligence 
in  business  "  is  a  duty,  as  well  as  fervency  in  the 
service  of  the  Lord,  it  is  because  he  has  commanded 
both.  Por  the  will  of  God  revealed  to  man  for  the 
rule  of  his  conduct,  is  law.  "  My  meat  is  to  do  the 
will  of  him  that  sent  me."  The  Saviour  knew  no 
higher  obligation.  If  then,  he  forbids  labour  on  a 
given  day,  it  is  equally  binding  with  a  positive  pre- 
cept :  and  he  who  does  any  work  on  "  the  Sabbath 
of  the  Lord,"  transgresses  his  command — resisteth 
his  will.  This  negative  precept  covers  all  under  the 
command  and  control  of  any  man — son,  daughter, 
servant,  stranger.  And  this  last  is  the  most  difficult 
to  manage.  In  our  country,  it  is  the  foreign  element 
that  gives  most  trouble.  Foreigners  seem  determined 
to  force  a  European  and  Romish  Sunday  upon  this 
Protestant  nation. 

4.  The  six  days,  and  the  seventh  day  are  of  the 
same  kind.     Six  are  to  be  devoted  to  secular,  and 


A    SACRED    REST.  67 

one  to  sacred  services.  The  question  as  to  the 
seventh  day  controversy,  we  postpone  for  the  pres- 
ent. One  day  in  seven,  on  a  regular  succession,  is 
manifestly  the  spirit  of  the  law. 

5.  The  reason  supporting  the  precept  claims  our 
attention.  "  For  in  six  days  the  Lord  made  heaven 
and  earth,  the  sea  and  all  that  in  tliem  is,  and  rested 
the  seventh  day :  wherefore  the  Lord  blessed  the 
Sabbath  day  and  hallowed  it."     Here  note 

(1.)  To  bless  is  to  make  or  declare  a  person  happy, 
as  before  stated.  The  idea  of  time  being  itself 
made  happy  is  absurd.  But  God's  worship  makes 
man  happy  that  day. 

(2.)  The  Sabbath  day,  it  was,  which  the  Lord 
blessed  and  made  holy,  not  the  seventh  day.  As 
will  be  shown  hereafter,  the  phrase,  "seventh  day," 
is  never  used  in  the  Bible  as  the  name  of  the  day 
of  holy  rest ;  and  the  word  Sabbath  is  never  used 
but  to  signify  a  time  of  holy  rest. 

(3.)  That  this  fourth  command  is  a  moral  law ; 
and  not  in  any  sense  restricted  to  the  Jewish  people, 
is  manifest  from  the  reason  embodied  within  it.  The 
preamble  to  a  resolution,  a  law,  a  constitution,  is  the 
index  to  its  interpretation :  it  gives  the  reason  be- 
forehand. The  same  is  true,  when  the  reason  is 
given  .anywhere.  It  were  perfectly  easy  to  throw 
this  into  that  form;  ''Whereas  in  six  days  the  Lord, 
&c.,  wherefore  the  Lord  blessed  the  rest  day,  &c." 
Now  this  reason  is  not  peculiar  to  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple, but  it  is  common  to  all  mankind.     It  is  purely 


68  THE  lord's  day 

moral ;  not  an  item  in  it  or  about  it  relates  to  any 
Jewish  ceremonial.  Therefore,  the  law,  for  which 
it  gives  the  reason,  is  a  moral  law,  binding  upon  all 
niankind,  and  is  equally  appropriate  to  Jew  and 
Gentile.  "  The  rest  day  was  made  for  man."  Some 
fifty  years  ago,  Judge  Rush,  in  an  address  to  the 
Grand  Inquest  of  Philadelphia,  county,  pressed  this 
argument  with  great  force.  He  showed,  that  as  the 
reason  given  in  the  law  itself,  is  a  moral  reason, 
common  and  applicable  to  all  mankind,  the  law 
could  not  be  special  and  peculiar  to  the  Hebrew 
people ;  but  must  be  general  and  obligatory  upon 
all  mankind. 


A   SACRED    REST.  69 


CHAPTER  IX. 

ALL  JEWISH    PECULIARITIES   ARE    LEGISLATIVE    EN- 
ACTMENTS, NOT   CONSTITUTIONAL   LAWS. 

Some  Constitution  necessary. — Distinction  between  Law  and  Pen- 
alty.— 1.  The  Passover. — 2.  The  Tabernacle. — 3.  Servants. — 4. 
Usury  Laws. — 5.  Penalties  vary,  law  is  unchangeable. — Death 
penalty  to  six  of  the  commandments. 

E/EADER,  do  we  understand  one  another  ?  Do 
■jve  agree  that  the  organic  law  of  a  nation — the 
elementary  and  fundamental  principles  of  its  gov- 
ernment, the  Constitution — is  its  safeguard  and 
bond  of  union,  without  which  it  would  not  be  a 
nation,  but  only  a  gregarious  mass — a  mob  ?  Are 
we  agreed  that  this  Constitutional  Bond  lies  above, 
limits  and  controls  all  legislation ;  and  that,  con- 
sequently, all  laws  contravening  the  Constitution 
must  be  null  and  void  ?  If  we  herein  agree,  then 
we  cannot  differ  as  to  the  possibility,  probability, 
yea,  certainty,  that,  if  numerous  laws  are  made  so 
subordinate,  they  will  sometimes  branch  forth  in 
their  details  into  minute  regulations  peculiar  to  that 
particular  nation.  Suppose  the  people  of  Alabama 
and  those  of  Vermont  were  distinct  and  indepen- 
dent nations  ;  and  that  each  and  both  would  adopt 


70  THE   lord's    day 

the  TEN  WORDS  as  their  Constitution ;  how  long 
would  it  be  before  their  legislation  would  exhibit 
distinct  peculiarities,  mutually  inapplicable  to  each 
other  ?  Diversity  of  climate,  and  therefore  of  soil, 
and  therefore  of  productions,  and  therefore  of  in- 
dustry, and  therefore  of  commerce,  would  force 
upon  them  laws  correspondent  to  all  these  diversi- 
ties. For  example,  Vermont  legislation  would  have 
an  eye  to  lumber,  to  maple  sugar,  to  live  stock,  and 
especially  sheep  and  wool.  Alabama  legislation 
would  regard  sugar  cane,  cotton,  rice,  &c.  The 
laws  of  each  thus  become  utterly  inapplicable  to 
the  other.  Thus  Hebrew  legislation,  under  the  very 
same  constitution  which  God  gave  as  the  moral, 
elementary  law  to  the  Greek,  the  Roman,  the  Egyp- 
tian, produces  laws  and  regulations  peculiar  to  them 
and  unsuitable  to  other  nations. 

One  other  general  principle  will  prepare  us  for 
some  detail,  viz. :  That  a  law  and  iU  i:fenalty  are 
quite  distinct.  Be  it  that  a  law  without  a  penalty 
appropriated  to  its  violation  is  mere  counsel  or  ad- 
vice. This  alters  not  the  case ;  for  all  human  leg- 
islation exhibits  changes  interminable  in  penalties, 
whilst  the  law,  i.  e.,  the  rule  prescribing  duty,  re- 
mains unchanged.  For  example,  under  the  consti- 
tutional law  of  the  eighth  precept,  "Thou  shalt  not 
steal,"  how  vastly  diversified  is  human  legislation! 
English  law  awarded  death  even  for  petit  larceny ; 
time  and  Christianity  have  changed  this.  American 
legislation,  very  soon  after  the  trammels  of  English 


A   SACRED    REST.  71 

law  were  thrown  off,  produced  the  same  change; 
but  still  with  great  diversity  of  penal  enactment. 
Similar  diversities  exist  as  to  modes  of  the  one  cap- 
ital punishment — hanging,  beheading,  strangling, 
stoning,  poisoning,  burning,  drowning.  But  all 
these  diversities  in  penalty,  both  as  to  degree  of 
severity  and  mode  of  infliction,  involve  no  altera- 
tion in  the  organic  law  itself:  it  still  remains  the 
same,  "Thou  shalt  not  kill."  And  this  springs 
from  the  distinction  between  law  and  penalty — a 
distinction  nowhere  more  strongly  marked  than  in 
the  TEN  WORDS.  No  penalty  was  uttered  from  the 
summit  of  Sinai.  No  penalty  was  written  on  the 
two  tables  of  stone.  No  penalty  is  anywhere  re- 
corded in  the  Constitution  of  the  Hebrew  Common- 
wealth. No  penalty  is  registered  in  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States.  A  prophylactic  is  set 
forth  in  the  eighth  amendment,  against  "  cruel  and 
unusual  punishments."  But,  except  removal  from 
office  and  disqualification,  no  penalty,  not  even  for 
treason,  is  prescribed  in  that  wonderful  instrument. 
Of  all  this,  the  philosophy  is  not  difficult  of  com- 
prehension. It  is  found  in  the  object  of  penalty. 
This  is  two-fold : — to  vindicate  justice  in  asserting 
and  sustaining  the  majesty  of  law ;  and  to  prevent 
future  transgression :  the  former  being  principal, 
the  latter  subsidiary.  The  Enghsh  judge  who  ele- 
vated the  latter  above  the  former  by  saying  to  the 
horse-thief,  "We  hang  you,  sir,  not  because  you 
stole  a  horse,   but  to  prevent   horses  from  being 


72  THE  lord's  day 

stolen,"  showed  his  ignorance  of  the  foundation 
principle  of  government,  and  his  belief  that  an 
English  horse  is  worth  more  than  an  Englishman. 
Justice  is  a  fixed  guaranty ;  penalty  is  a  contin- 
gency. The  law  is  immutable ;  but  its  violations 
are,  as  to  aggravations,  interminably  variable ;  and 
so,  therefore,  must  the  punishments  be.  Hence, 
the  world  over,  a  wide  discretionary  margin  is  left 
to  the  judges. 

Let  us  now  open  the  Hebrew  code,  and  observe 
some  of  the  ramifications  of  elementary  law  in  the 
legislative  enactments  under  it.  And  the  first  in- 
stitution to  be  cited  is  a  kind  of  prolepsis  in  his- 
torical development.  It  was  an  act  of  the  legisla- 
tor, acting  under  the  elementary  law,  yet  before  its 
formal  enunciation.  Of  course  the  Passover  feast 
is  referred  to.  The  Passover  services  belong  chiefly 
to  the  first  table  ;  they  are  covered,  as  to  their  prin- 
ciple, by  the  command,  "  Thou  shalt  have  no  other 
gods  before  me,"  which  contains  the  proposition, 
"  Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  him 
only  shalt  thou  serve."  Its  spirit  is  also  found  in 
the  second,  which  prohibits  idolatry,  and  enjoins 
holy  and  reverend  use  of  Divinely-instituted  wor- 
ship. The  Fourth  in  spirit  is  here  also,  for  it  in- 
cludes and  commemorates  deliverance  from  servi- 
tude, devotion  of  time  to  sacred  services,  and  always 
includes  one  Sabbath  day  devoted  to  the  Lord  and 
his  regular  worship,  inclusive  of  the  typical  sacri- 


A    SACRED    REST.  .         73 

fices,  and  referring  to  Chi'ist  our  Passover,  sacrificed 
for  us. 

Now,  this  institution  we  hold  to  be  a  law  of  Is- 
rael:  formal  subjection  to  it  belongs  not  to  the 
Church  under  the  gospel :  it  was  a  shadow  of  good 
things :  the  substance  to  which  it  refers  is  ours ; 
but  the  form  is  ritual  and  ceremonial,  and  dies  by 
limitation. 

2.  The  Tabernacle,  with  its  Court,  and  Brazen 
Altar,  and  Laver,  and  Candlestick,  and  Table  of 
Show-bread,  and  Golden  Altar  of  Incense,  and  Ark 
of  the  Testimony — including  the  entire  system  of 
burnt-offerings,  peace-offerings,  incense-offerings, — 
all  these  are  formal  and  legal,  and  yet  outgrowths 
of  legislation,  under  and  consistent  with  the  organic 
-law,  but  repealable  and  mortal  by  their  own  limita- 
tion. The  substance  is  of  Christ,  and  is  immutable 
and  eternal ;  but  the  shadows  pass  away  in  their 
own  proper  time.  The  tables  of  stone  may  be 
broken  and  lost,  but  the  heavenly  Constitution 
abides  for  ever.  The  tendency,  drift,  and  design  of 
this  system,  and  indeed  of  the  whole  ceremonial 
institutions,  is  to  direct  and  lead  to  the  fulfilment 
of  law ;  the  tables  being  the  grand  centre  of  all 
Jewish  worship — presenting,  under  a  wonderful  di- 
versity of  instrumental  symbols,  instructions  as  to 
the  preservation  of  the  Organic  Law  intact,  and  as 
to  the  means  of  restoration  of  the  worshippers  to  a 
state  of  acceptance  and  Divine  favour.  They  are, 
in  fact,  all  evangelical  in  their  doctrinal  substance. 
7 


74  THE  lord's  day 

3d  Example  may  be  the  regulations  relative  to 
servants,  Exod.  xxi.  1-11,  and  many  others  in  the 
same  chapter.  They  are  called  "judgments  which 
thou  shalt  set  before  the  people."  "  If  thou  buy 
an  Hebrew  servant,  six  years  he  shall  serve ;  and 
in  the  seventh  he  shall  go  out  free  for  nothing.  If 
he  came  in  by  himself,  he  shall  go  out  by  himself," 
etc.,  etc.  So  xxii.  1 :  "  If  a  man  shall  steal  an  ox 
or  a  sheep,  and  kill  it,  or  sell  it,  he  shall  restore 
five  oxen  for  an  ox,  and  four  sheep  for  a  sheep." 
Great  numbers  of  such  laws  were  enacted,  in  appli- 
cation of  the  principles  in  the  Constitution  to  the 
various  conditions  of  the  people.  But  all  these  are 
manifestly  municipal  regulations,  and  are  subject 
to  amendment,  repeal,  or  modification,  thus  differing 
entirely  from  organic  law. 

4.  A  fourth  example  of  this  kind  is  the  usury 
laws.  By  usury  the  Hebrews  meant  interest,  not 
exactly  what  we  mean  by  it,  viz.,  unlaicful  interest. 
We  undertake,  foolishly  enough,  to  fix  by  law  the 
amount  that  shall  be  paid  for  the  use  of  money ; 
and  great  is  the  mischief  and  moral  corruption  oc- 
casioned— perhaps  I  might  say  caused — by  our  leg- 
islation about  usury.  The  Hebrew  Lawgiver,  more 
wise,  undertakes  nowhere  this  thing  so  unreasonable. 
The  usufruct  value  of  money  can  no  more  be  fixed 
and  defined  by  municipal  rule,  than  that  of  horses, 
or  cows,  or  butter.  Moses  prohibits  absolutely  any 
interest  to  be  exacted  of  a  Hebrew  for  the  use  of 
money.     Exod.  xxii.  25  :   "  If  thou  lend  money  to 


A   SACRED    REST.  75 

any  of  my  people  that  is  poor  by  thee,  thou  shalt 
not  be  to  him  as  a  usurer,  neither  shalt  thou  lay 
upon  him  usury."  So  repeating  and  expanding 
the  law.  Levit.  xxv.  35-37:  "Take  thou  no  usury 
of  him,  nor  increase.  Thou  shalt  not  give  him  thy 
money  upon  usury,  nor  lend  him  thy  victuals  for 
increase."  And  Deut.  xxiii.  19,  20:  "Thou  shalt 
not  lend  upon  usury  to  thy  brother :  usury  of  momey, 
usury  of  victuals,  usury  of  anything  that  is  lent 
upon  usury.  Unto  a  stranger  thou  mayest  lend 
upon  usury,  but  unto  thy  brother  thou  shalt  not 
lend  upon  iisury."  The  reason  of  this  municipal 
regulation  is  evident  on  its  face :  it  is  special  to 
the  Hebrew  people,  and  not  binding  in  its'  specialty 
upon  us  ;  although  its  moving  principle,  brotherly 
love,  belongs  to  the  Constitution  of  Israel  and  of 
mankind :  the  charitable  provision  for  the  poor  is 
a  duty ;  but  the  form  is  ceremonial. 

It  is  surely  unnecessary  to  proceed  farther  in  de- 
tail of  these  legislative  enactments,  it  being  my 
object,  simply  to  illustrate  by  example,  the  difference 
between  the  law  of  the  tex  words,  which  is  com- 
mon to  man ;  and  Jewish  legislation  under  it,  which 
is  peculiar  to  the  Israelitish  people. 

The  other  class  of  cases  arises  from  the  difference 
between  law,  as  a  rule  of  action,  and  penalty  as  an 
enforcement  of  rule.  Strictly  speaking,  no  duty 
can  be  enforced,  i.  e.,  you  caiinot  compel  a  man  and 
thus  bring  him  up  to  performance  of  his  duty.  The 
reason  is  plain ;  duty  must  be  the  voluntary  outgo 


76  THE  lord's  day 

of  the  heart  in  reverential  subjection  to  the  Govern- 
or's will.  Unless  a  man  does  the  will  of  God,  cheer- 
fully, voluntarily,  willingly,  he  performs  no  duty, 
however  right  the  thing  he  does  may  be  in  itself. 
You  cannot  force  a  man  to  keep  the  Sabbath  holy : 
any  more  than  you  can  force  a  child  to  love  and 
obey  its  parents.  All  you  can  do,  is  to  hold  up  a 
choice  between  outward  physical  compliance  and 
punishment.  Thus  a  motive,  !>ased  on  self-love, 
which  shrinks  from  suifering  the  penalty,  is  added, 
to  strengthen  the  sense  of  moral  obligation  to  obe- 
dience. 

Penalty,  then,  as  distinguished  from  law,  may  be 
varied  in  the  same  country  at  different  times ;  and 
in  different  countries  at  the  same  time.  This  vari- 
ation is  occasioned  chiefly^  perhaps  solely  by  the 
secondary  object  of  it ;  viz.,  its  tendency  to  prevent 
crime.  For  this  end  the  character  of  the  person 
deserving  punishment,  his  upbringing,  his  surround- 
ings ;  a  thousand  circumstances  come  in  to  modify 
and  adjust  punishment.  "  A  reproof  entereth  more 
into  a  wise  man,  than  a  hundred  stripes  into  a  fool." 
Hence,  no  government  pretends  to  gauge  all  penal- 
ties by  statute :  but  all,  from  Moses  to  our  day, 
leave  a  large  discretion  to  the  judges.  Now  the 
error  which  we  wish  here  to  correct,  is  the  supposi- 
tion tliat  the  law  is  changed,  because  the  penalty  is 
modified.  History  abundantly  testifies  that  wher- 
ever Christianity  has  gone,  the  penal  code  has  been 
relaxed  and  meliorated.    In  the  days  of  the  Stuarts, 


A    SACRED    REST.  77 

more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  crimes  were  pun- 
ished with  death.  But  whilst  these  great  changes 
were  in  progress,  the  laws  themselves  remained 
unchanged.  When  the  punishment  of  death  ceased 
to  be  inflicted  for  theft,  the  eighth  commandment 
remained  the  same. 

Now  so  is  it  in  the  Hebrew  commonwealth.  The 
penalty  for  the  violation  of  most  of  the  ten  words, 
was  death:  which  to  us  now  seems  unreasonably 
severe :  yet  were  they  not  at  all  more  so,  than  were 
common  to  other  nations  of  the  same  age. 

For  example,  the  penalty  for  transgression  of  the 
third  commandment  is  death.  Lev.  xiv.  16,  "  And 
he  that  blasphemeth  the  Lord,  he  shall  surely  be  put 
to  death."  The  same  death  by  stoning  was  inflicted 
for  a  violation  of  the  first  and  second  command- 
ments. Deut.  xiii.  6-9.  And  xvii.  2-7, — "And  hath 
gone  and  served  other  gods,  and  worshipped  them, 
either  the  sun  or  the  moon,  or  any  of  the  host,  which 
I  have  not  commanded — thou  shalt  bring  forth  that 
man  or  that  woman — and  shalt  stone  them  with 
stones  till  they  die." 

In  like  manner,  the  fifth  precept.  Exod.  xxi.  17 
— Lev.  XX.  9,  "  Every  one  that  curseth  his  father  or 
his  mother,  shall  be  surely  put  to  death."  And  the 
seventh.  Lev.  xx.  10-13,  "  The  adulterer  and  the 
adulteress  shall  surely  be  put  to  death."  Equally 
equivocal  is  the  testimony  in  regard  to  the  sixth. 
Num.  XXXV.  16-31,  "  The  murderer  shall  surely  be 
put  to  death — ye  shall  take  no  satisfaction  for  the 


<  5  THE   LOUD  S   DAY 

life  of  a  murderer,  which  is  guilty  of  death  ;  but  he 
shall  be  surely  put  to  death."- 

Here  then  are  six  out  of  the  ten  words,  to  which 
no  penalties  are  affixed  in  the  Decalogue,  but  to 
which  the  highest  penalty  is  affixed  by  Jewish  legis- 
lation. Our  Pennsylvania  code  awards  this  punish- 
ment to  only  one  of  the  six.  Does  this  prove  that 
the  other  five  are  not  moral  laws  binding  upon  us, 
but  only  ceremonial  regulations  of  the  Jews  ? 
Must  we  hold  to  the  sixth  as  moral,  and  abandon 
the  five  as  ceremonial  ?  And  that,  siinply  because 
Hebrew  legislation  has  appended  penalties,  which 
we  deem  unsuitable  to  us,  in  our  greatly  ameliorated 
condition  of  the  penal  code  ? 


A   SACRED    REST.  79 


CHAPTER  X. 

SET   FEASTS,  OR   EXTRA   SABBATHS. 

Col,  ii.  16  vindicated  against  our  opponents. — New  moons, — Pass- 
over.— Trumpets. — Atonement  day. — Tabernacles. — Romans  xv. 
5,  6. 

A  CHIEF  source  of  error  in  the  Sabbatic  contro- 
versy, is  fbund  in  the  Hebrew  festivals,  or  special 
sacred  days  of  that  people.  These  were,  by  acts 
of  legislation,  peculiar  to  them,  and  for  them  alone. 
They  involve  the  rest  principle — cessation  from 
labour,  and  consecration  of  the  times  specified  to 
public  religious  worship — and  therefore  are  called 
Sabbaths,  and  hence  are  often  confounded  with  the 
weekly  Sabbath.  Let  us  inquire  into  them  and 
extricate  the  general  subject  from  this  confusion. 

1.  Thefnonthly  solemn  observance  is  most  fully 
set  forth  in  Num.  xxviii.  11-15  :  "And  in  the  be- 
ginnings of  your  months,  ye  shall  offer  a  burnt-of- 
fering unto  the  Lord  ;"  the  detail  is  given.  It  is 
immediately  preceded  by  the  sacrifices  for  the  weekly 
Sabbath,  and  that  by  the  daily  offerings.  It  does 
not  appear  that  the  new  moons  were  days  of  holy 
convocation  and  rest  from  servile  labour.    Yet  Amos 


80  THE    lord's   day 

viii.  5  seems,  in  his  reproof  of  tlie  eager  and  ava- 
ricious spirit  of  traffic,  to  imply  as  much.  "  When 
will  the  new  moon  be  gone,  that  we  may  sell 
corn?  and  the  Sabbath,  that  we  may  set  forth 
wheat?"  Still,  it  is  nowhere  expressly  called  a 
Sabbath. 

2.  We  pass  on  to  the  great  feasts  of  the  Passover 
and  unleavened  bread.  Num.  xxviii.  16-25:  "And 
in  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  first  month  is  the  Pass- 
over of  the  Lord."  Verse  18  :  "  In  the  first  day 
shall  be  an  holy  convocation ;  ye  shall  do  no  man- 
ner of  servile  w^ork  therein."  Then  the  sacrifices 
are  prescribed;  and  verse  25 :  "  And  on  the  seventh 
day  ye  shall  have  an  holy  convocation ;  ^e  shall  do 
no  servile  work."  Here  we  have  two  days  of  rest 
from  all  worldly  labour  ;  and  public  assemblies  for 
worship  by  sacrifices — Sabbaths  in  fact ;  the  first 
of  the  seven  being  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  month. 
It  is  impossible  that  both  these  days  should  be  the 
regular  weekly  Sabbath.  Yea,  it  must  generally 
happen,  that  neither  could  be  ;  yet  the  seven  must 
comprehend  one  regular  sacred,  weekly  Sabbath. 
So  Deut.  xvi.  8  :  "  Six  days  thou  shalt  ^t  unleav- 
ened bread,  and  on  the  seventh  day  shall  be  a  sol- 
emn assembly  .to  the  Lord  thy  God :  thou  slialt  do 
no  work  therein."  The  same  is  repeated  in  Lev. 
xxiii.  4^8.  Two  Sabbaths;  every  element  of  Sab- 
batic rest  is  here,  except  the  name — cessation  from 
work,  public  assembly,  and  public  worship. 

3.  The  feast  of  trumpets  has  all  these  elements, 


A   SACRED    REST.  81 

and  the  name  also.  Lev.  xxiii.  24,  25 :  "  In  the 
seventh  month,  in  the  first  day  of  the  month,  shall 
ye  have  a  Sabbath,  a  memorial  of  blowing  of  trum- 
pets, an  holy  convocation.  Ye  shall  do  no  servile 
work  therein;  but  ye  shall  offer  an  offering  made 
by  fire  unto  the  Lord."  Here  is  a  Sahhatli^  which 
is  not  the  weekly  rest  day. 

4.  "Also  on  the  tenth  day  of  this  seventh  month 
there  shall  be  a  day  of  atonement ;  it  shall  be  an 
holy  convocation  unto  you,  and  ye  shall  do  no  work 
in  that  same  day.  For  whatsoever  soul  it  be  that 
doeth  any  work  in  that  same  day,  the  same  soul 
will  I  destroy  from  among  his  people.  It  shall  be 
unto  you  a  Sabbath  of  rest ;  from  even  unto  even 
ye  shall  celebrate  your  Sabbath."  Lev.  xxiii.  27-31 ; 
xvi.  31.  This  is  a  Sabbath,  but  not  the  weekly  rest 
day.  The  first  day  and  the  tenth  day  of  this  sev- 
enth month  are  special  Sabbaths,  peculiar  to  the 
Hebrew  people,  appointed  by  the  same  Divine  au- 
thority w^hich  at  the  creation  blessed  and  sanctified 
the  Sabbath  day.  Both  these  never  could  be  the 
day  of  weekly  rest ;  and  very  rarely,  if  ever,  could 
either  of  them  be  so.  It  is  from  this  special  rest 
day  the  error  was  derived  by  the  Jews  and  others, 
that  the  regular  weekly  Sabbath  begins  in  the  even- 
ing ;  for  which  opinion,  as  we  shall  see  anon,  there 
is  no  Scriptural  authority  :  for  this  misunderstand- 
ing is  not  authority. 

5.  Again,  verse  34 :  "  The  fifteenth  day  of  this 
seventh  month  shall  be  the  feast  of  tabernacles  for 


82  THE  lord's  day 

seven  days  unto  the  Lord.  On  the  first  day  shall 
be  an  holy  convocation ;  ye  shall  do  no  servile  work 
therein.  On  the  eighth  day  shall  be  an  holy  convo- 
cation unto  you.  A  solemn  assembly,  and  ye  shall 
do  no  servile  work  therein."  This  is  repeated  at 
verse  39 :  And  these  days,  the  first  and  the  eighth, 
are  expressly  called  Sabbaths:  "on  the  first  day 
shall  be  a  Sabbath,  and  on  the  eighth  day  shall  be  a 
Sabbath." 

We  have  therefore  seven — viz.,  in  Nos.  1  and  2, 
— 3 ;  and  in  Nos.  3,  4,  and  5, — 4  Sabbaths  :  Nos.  1 
and  2  not  so  named,  but  including  all  the  elements ; 
of  the  rest  day :  the  four  in  Nos,  3,  4,  and  5,  in- 
cluding both  the  elements  and  the  express  name  of 
Sabbath.  But  all  the  seven  are  expressly  contained 
in  verses  38,  39.  "  These  are  the  feasts  of  the 
Lord,  which  ye  shall  proclaim  to  be  holy  convo- 
cations. Besides  the  Sabbaths  of  the  Lord,  and 
beside  your  gifts,  and  besides  all  your  vows,  and 
beside  all  your  free-will  ofi'erings,  which  ye  give 
unto  the  Lord."  Nor  must  we  neglect  the  contrast 
between  these  set  feasts,  these  extra  Sabbaths  and 
the  Sabbaths  of  the  Lord.  The  weekly  rest  day  is 
contra-distinguished.  In  verse  3d  we  read, — "  It  is 
the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  in  all  your  dwellings :" 
and  they  are  called,  "My  Sabbaths."  But  these 
seven  are  additional — extra  days,  besides  the  regular 
days  of  rest — "your  Sabbaths." 

"And  Moses  declared  unto  Israel  the  feasts  of 
the  Lord."     Thus   clearly  distinguished,  are   the 


A   SACRED    REST.  83 

Sabbaths  of  the  Lord, — the  regular  weekly  memori- 
als of  his  finished  work ; — the  eternal  and  unchange- 
able moral  law;  from  the  municipal  regulations, 
peculiarly  adapted  to  the  Hebrews,  and  which,  being 
superadded  specialities,  must  expire  with  the  other 
ceremonials  of  that  people. 

And  just  here,  whilst  these  facts  are  before  us, 
we  may  as  well  dispose  of  an  argument,  on  which 
great  stress  is  laid  by  the  opponents  of  the  holy  day ; 
and  whose  entire  force  is  destroyed  by  the  distinction 
here  presented.  It  is  built  on  Col.  ii.  16,  "  Let 
no  man  therefore  judge  you  in  meat,  or  in  drink, 
or  in  respect  of  an  holy  day  or  of  the  new  moon, 
or  the  Sabbaths."  It  is  obvious  at  a  glance, 
that  the  apostle  is  cautioning  his  readers  against 
Judaizing  teachers, — persons  disposed  to  enforce 
observances  of  the  ceremonial  law.  "Except  ye  be 
circumcised  and  keep  the  law  of  Moses,  ye  cannot 
be  saved."  For  leaning  in  this  direction  Paul  re- 
proved Peter.  Gal.  ii.  10-16.  And  here  he  directs 
us  to  resist  such  influences  and  stand  up  for  Chris- 
tian liberty;  and  that  we  must  not  be  entangled  with 
the  yoke  of  bondage.  Let  no  man  usurp  authority 
over  you  and  censure  you  because  you  refuse  to 
comply  with  the  distinctions  of  clean  and  unclean 
animals  for  food,  or  as  to  the  prohibitions  of  drinks 
and  drink-oiferings,  or  of  holy  days — new  moons  or 
of  Sabbaths.  Every  one  of  these  are  ceremonials 
of  the  Jewish  law — shadows,  types  of  good  things 
to  come,  foreshadowing  Christ.     The  Sabbaths  are 


84  THE  lord's  day 

those  we  have  just  been  discussing :  the  three  holy 
days,  including  the  new  moons ;  and  the  four  feasts, 
which  we  have  seen  are  Sabbaths,  but  not  the  weekly 
rest  days.  As  to  Paul's  own  conduct  in  regard  to 
the  weekly  rest  day,  he  constantly  observed  it,  en- 
tering into  the  synagogues  and  reasoning  out  of  the 
Scriptures  :  and  he  gives  directions  to  the  Corinthi- 
ans, 1  Cor.  xvi.  1,  2,  in  regard  to  their  duties  on 
the  first  day  of  the  week ;  making  it  evident  that 
for  a  while  he  kept  and  improved  both  the  seventh 
and  the  first.  Thus,  there  is  not  a  particle  of  evi- 
dence that  the  weekly  Sabbath  is  meant  in  this 
place  ;  but  only  the  Jewish  ceremonial  feast  days, 
which  must  die  by  their  own  limitation. 

This  reasoning  is  applicable  to  Rom.  xiv.  5,  6, 
''  One  man  esteemeth  one  day  above  another ; 
another  esteemeth  every  day  alike.''  The  heathens 
in  Rome  and  all  the  world  over,  had  their  special 
days,  like  our  ancestors,  and  like  the  Jews,  devoted 
to  their  peculiar  divinities.  And  it  was  difficult,  to 
wean  off  the  Jewish  Christians  at  Rome  from  the 
feast  days  and  annual  Sabbaths  above  named.  The 
questions  were  perplexing — are  these  observances 
binding  ?  Must  we  keep  these  annual  Sabbaths  ? 
May  we  omit  them  without  sin  ?  And  the  same 
questions  yet  trouble  us.  There  are  people  in  this 
enlightened  age  whose  consciences  are  uneasy,  at 
sight  of  desecrated  Christmas  day;  Good-Friday; 
Easter-Monday,  Ascension  day,  &c.  Now,  says, 
Paul,  these  are  matters  of  utter  indifference.     God 


A   SACRED   REST.  85 

has  not  made  the  Jewish  annual  Sabbaths  binding 
upon  us.  Christmas,  Good-Eridaj,  &c.,  may  be  ob- 
served rehgiouslj  and  even  profitably ;  but  there  is 
no  command  of  God  for  it :  and  no  man  may  justly 
take  offence  at  their  neglect. 


86  THE   LORD'S   DAY 


CHAPTEE  XI. 

THE  FOURTH  PRECEPT — OBJECTION  TO  IT,  BECAUSE 
ITS  PENALTY  IS  TOO  SEVERE — LOCAL  LEGISLATION 
UNDER   IT   FOR   HEBREWS. 

Death  penalty,  as  in  the  other  eight. 

The  immutability  of  moral  law  is  admitted  by 
all  who  admit  that  its  home  is  the  bosom  of  God. 
Equally  universal  is  the  concession  that  the  penal 
sanctions  appended  to  laws  are  mutable,  and  haVe 
been  varying  in  all  ages  and  nations.  Our  ninth 
chapter  demonstrated  this  truth  by  the  Scriptural 
examples  of  the  first  and  second,  the  third  and  fifth, 
the  sixth  and  seventh  precepts.  To  neither  of  these, 
as  organic  laws,  uttered  in  thunder  and  written  on 
stone  by  Jehovah  himself,  did  he  append  any  pen- 
alty ;  but  left  that,  as  our  fathers  left  the  United 
States  Constitution,  to  have  its  penal  sanctions  af- 
fixed by  municipal  legislation.  This  parallel  be- 
tween our  national  organic  law  and  that  of  the  He- 
brew Commonwealth,  is  as  thoroughly  and  graphic- 
ally correct,  as  it  is  philosophically  and  historically 
true.  Even  treason,  the  highest  crime  known  to 
law,  has  no  punishment  defined  in  the  Constitution. 


A   SACRED   REST.  *        87 

Sucli  definition  is  left  to  municipal  statute ;  and  the 
reason  has  been  made  apparent,  viz. :  penalties  are 
variable  by  time,  place,  and  circumstances ;  but  or- 
ganic law  must  consist  of  purely  elementary  prin- 
ciples. We  have  seen  that  penalties  were  added  in 
regard  to  the  first,  second,  third,  fifth,  sixth,  and 
seventh  precepts.  We  may  say,  also,  the  eighth. 
Por  stealing  a  man,  Deut.  xxiv.  7 :  "  Then  the  thief 
shall  die."  For  stealing  food,  ^'he  shall  restore 
seven-fold."  Prov.  vi.  31. 

For  violating  the  ninth  precept,  the  law  enacting 
penalty  is  not  a  specific,  but  yet  an  equitable  mea- 
sure. "  Then  shall  ye -do  unto  the  false  witness  as 
he  had  thought  to  have  done  unto  his  brother." 
Deut.  xix.  19.  The  tenth,  which  aims  to  check  sin 
in  its  incipient  movement,  is  the  only  one  of  the 
TEN  WORDS  which  hath  no  special  penal  enactment 
added.  The  reason  is  plain ;  it  is  violated  in  the 
heart's  entertaining  an  illicit  desire,  and  is  not  cog- 
nizable by  law  for  punishment  until  it  externalizes 
itself  in  overt  acts,  when  it  necessarily  falls  under 
some  one  of  the  penalties  of  the  nine. 

Now  the  Fourth  is  not  an  exception.  Special, 
municipal  laws  were  passed,  modifying  the  phrase- 
ology and  applying  its  principle,  and  prescribing  its 
penalty.  In  these  matters  it  is  attended  by  just 
such  circumstances  as  attend  all  the  others.  Of 
these  we  may  mention  first  the  penalty.  It  is,  like 
the  eight  already  noticed,  severe^  according  to  our 
present  conceptions,  which  are  the  product  of  gos- 


88     •  THE  lord's  day 

pel  amelioration.  So  are  all  the  rest :  but  so  were 
the  penalties  of  law  in  all  the  nations  of  the  world 
at  that  period.  Deatli  seems  a  cruel  punishment 
on  a  boy  for  cursing  his  father  or  his  mother  ;  or  a 
woman  for  violating  the  rules  of  chastity.  But 
such  severities  existed  in  all  the  nations  to  a  much 
later  period.  All  that  is  needful  to  my  argument 
is  this  fact.  I  cannot  be  called  upon  to  defend  the 
penal  code  of  Jewish  legislation.  The  same  God 
who  enacted  these  penalties  under  the  other  organic 
laws  of  the  two  tables,  enacted  this  penalty.  If 
you  charge  him  with  cruelty,  be  it  so :  the  quarrel 
is  not  mine ;  but  be  on  yeur  guard,  for  "if  it  be 
of  God,  ye  cannot  overthrow  it ;  lest  haply  ye  be 
found  even  to  fio-ht  acrainst  God."  Acts  v.  39.  Be 
impartial,  ye  that  fight  against  God  for  ordering 
the  death  penalty  for  Sabbath  breaking.  So  it 
reads.  Num.  xv.  35,  36  :  "  And  the  Lord  said  unto 
Moses,  The  man  shall  be  surely  put  to  death :  all 
the  congregation  shall  stone  him  with  stones  without 
the  camp."  Did  Jehovah  pass  a  wicked  and  cruel 
law  ?  "  And  all  the  congregation  brought  him 
without  the  camp,  and  stoned  him  with  stones,  and 
he  died;  as  the  Lord  commanded  Moses."  Ana- 
nias and  Sapphira  fell  down  dead  for  coveting  an 
evil  covetousness.  Acts  v.  Did  Peter  or  Peter's 
Master,  who  punished  them  with  death  for  lying 
unto  God,  do  a  great  wickedness  ?.  Be  ye  impar- 
tial, who  undertake  to  condemn  the  Hebrew  legislator 
and  Peter  and  his  Lord  for  this  cruelty ;   and  God, 


A   SACRED    REST.  89 

for  inflicting  death  on  Adam's  race  for  his  eating  the 
fruit  forbidden.  Apply  your  objections  and  your 
condemnation  to  the  punishments  ordered  for  the 
first,  second,  third,  fifth,  sixth,  seventh,  eighth,  and 
ninth  precepts — all  capital.  You  admit  such  pun- 
ishment to  be  right  and  proper,  and  not  cruel,  only 
in  regard  to  the  fourth  :  wherefore  this  partiality  ? 
Pause  and  think  a  moment,  and  let  your  sense  of 
compassion  and  of  justice  temper  themselves  with 
reverence  toward  God.  For  after  all  your  over- 
flow of  benevolence,  perhaps  God  is  as  benevo- 
lent and  even  as  wise  as  you  are.  Perhaps  he 
knew  as  well  or  better  than  you,  what  laws  mu- 
nicipal were  best  suited  to  the  condition  of  his 
peculiar  people  at  that  time.  But  I  may  not  de- 
fend Jehovah. 

Let  us  look  at  the  various  modifications  of  the 
Sabbatic  institution :  and  the  first  of  these,  after  the 
penal  sanction,  which  was  enacted  in  the  wilderness 
of  Sin  (as  we  have  seen,)  a  month  and  more,  before 
the  organic,  constitutional  law  was  uttered  from 
Sinai,  is  found  in  Exodus  xxxi.  13-17,  "Verily 
my  Sabbaths  ye  shall  keep ;  for  it  is  a  sign  between 
me  and  you,  throughout  your  generations" — and  in 
verse  14,  it  is  in  the  singular — "  Ye  shall  keep  the 
Sabbath,  therefore :  for  it  is  holy  unto  you :"  and 
the  death  penalty  enacted  in  the  wilderness  of  Sin, 
is  re-enacted.  Then  verse  15,  the  general  principle 
of  the  organic  law  is  recited — "  Six  days  may  work 
be  done,  but  in  the  seventh  is  the  Sabbath  of  rest, 


90  THE    lord's   day 

holy  to  the  Loed;"  and  in  verse  17,  "It  is  a 
sign  between  me  and  the  children  of  Israel  for 
ever." 

The  second  act  repeats  the  first,  with  the  addition 
prohibiting  the  kindling  of  fire  :  Exodus  xxxv.  2,  3. 
"  Six  days  shall  work  be  done,  but  on  the  seventh 
day  there  shall  be  to  you  an  holy  day,  a  Sabbath 
of  rest  to  the  Lord  :  whosoever  doeth  work  therein, 
shall  be  put  to  death.  Ye  shall  kindle  no  fire 
throughout  your  habitations  upon  the  Sabbath  day." 
This  shows  again  that,  the  proportion  of  time  is  the 
chief  matter — six  days  to  worldly  pursuits  and  one 
to  holy,  religious  duties — "to  the  Lord." 

In  the  order  of  the  historic  statement,  the  next 
is  Leviticus  xvi.  31.  But  as  this  and  the  Sabbaths 
mentioned  in  chapter  xxiii.,  except  verse  3,  are  all 
special  and  extra  rests,  and  not  the  regular  weekly 
Sabbaths,  we  postpone  their  discussion  to  a  separate 
chapter :  let  us  pursue  the  citation  of  acts  of  legis- 
lation under  the  fourth  article  of  the  Constitution 
proper.  The  next  or  third  act  is  Leviticus  xxiii.  3, 
"  Six  days  shall  work  be  done,  but  the  seventh  is 
the  Sabbath  of  rest,  an  holy  convocation ;  ye  shall 
do  no  work  therein :  it  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord 
in  all  your  dwellings."  Here  is  the  same  propor- 
tion set  forth,  the  same  cessation  of  worldly  labour, 
the  same  consecration  of  time  to  God's  worship — 
the  only  conceivable  sense  in  which  holiness  can  be 
spoken  of  time.  The  penalty  is  not  here  named, 
but  it  prescribes  public  worship — "  an  holy  convoca- 


A    SACRED    REST.  91 

tion" — a  calling  together  of  the  people  for  holy, 
sacred  worship. 

The  fourth  notice  of  legislation  is  in  Leviticus 
xxiv.  8.  It  regards  not  the  Sabbath^  properly 
speaking,  but  simply  marks  it  as  the  time  of  chang- 
ing the  shew-bread.  ''  Every  Sabbath  he  shall 
set  it  in  order  before  the  Lord  continually" — no 
change. 

The  next  notice  of  Sabbaths  regards  not  the 
weekly  rest  day,  but  the  Sabbatic  year,  Leviticus 
XXV.  1-8,  and  the  Jubilee,  which  will  be  treated 
under  the  head  of  extra  Sabbaths. 

The  fifth  notice  by  way  of  legislation  is  found  in 
Numbers  xxviii.  9, 10,  where  there  is  direction  given 
about  the  regular  sacrifices  for  the  daj^  "And  on 
the  Sabbath  day,  two  lambs  of  the  first  year  with- 
out spot,  and  two  tenth-deals  of  flour  for  a  meat- 
offering, mingled  with  oil,  and  the  drink-offering 
thereof.  This  is  the  burnt-offering  of  every  Sab- 
bath, besides  the  continual  burnt-offering,  and  his 
drink-offering." 

In  Deuteronomy,  which  is  a  kind  of  resum^  of 
the  history  from  the  Exodus  unto  "  the  plain  over 
against  Zuph — on  this  side  Jordan,"  chapter  i.  1, 
we  have  a  statement  of  the  ten  ivords,  with  some 
enlargements  and  explanations,  adapted  peculiarly 
to  Israel.  I  will  not  repeat  the  whole,  but  only 
these  amendments :  and  shall  put  in  italics  the 
words  additional  and  explanatory,  that  the  reader 
may  see  at  a  glance  how  utterly  groundless  is  the 


92  THE  lord's  day 

innuendo  of  anti-Sabbath  men,  that  there  is  incon- 
sistency between  the  repetition  here  and  the  utter- 
ances from  Sinai.  The  only  variances,  except  some 
hlight  ones  in  translating,  such  as,  "  Neither  shalt 
thou  desire;''  instead  of,  "Thou  shalt  not  covet,'' 
are  in  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  tenth.  Moses  says,  v. 
12,  '^  Keep  the  Sabbath  day  to  sanctify  it  as  the 
Lord  thy  God  hath  commanded  thee  ;  six  days  thou 
shalt  labour,  and  do  all  thy  work :  but  the  seventh 
day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God  :  in  it  thou 
shalt  not  do  any  work,  thou,  nor  thy  son,  nor  thy 
daughter,  nor  thy  man-servant,  no7^  thy  maid-servant, 
nor  thine  ox,  nor  thine  ass,  nor  a7it/  of  thy  cattle, 
nor  thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates,  that  thy 
man-servant  and  thy  maid-servant  may  rest  as  well 
as  thou.  And  remember  that  thon  toast  a  servant  in 
the  land  of  Egypt,  and  that  the  Lord  thy  God 
brought  thee  out  thence,  through  a  mighty  hand,  and 
by  a  stretched  out  arm  :  therefore  the  Lord  thy  God 
commanded  thee  to  keep  the  Sabbath  day." 

"  Honour  thy  father  and  thy  mother,  as  the  Lord 
thy  God  hath  commanded  thee  :  that  thy  days  may 
\>Q  prolonged,  and  that  it  may  go  ivell  with  thee  in 
the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee." 
Verse  21.  "  Neither  shalt  thou  desire  thy  neigh- 
bour's wdfe,  neither  shalt  thou  covet  thy  neighbour's 
house,  his  field,  nor  his  man-servant,  nor  his  maid- 
servant, nor  his  ox,  nor  his  ass,  nor  anything  that 
is  thy  neighbour's." 

The  reader  sees  at   once  that  here  is,  as  it  were, 


A   SACRED    REST.  93 

a  paraphrase — a  little  expansion  and  addition,  and 
an  omission  of  the  reason  of  the  Fourth — but 
no  inconsistency  between  Moses  and  his  Divine 
Master.  Legislation  under  a  Constitution  may 
cite  its  language;  but,  if  it  give  nothing  but 
its  language,  it  is  not  legislation  at  all,  only  repe- 
tition. 

We  have  now  before  us  all  the  legislation  which  has 
occurred  under  the  Fourth  Article  of  the  Hebrew 
Constitution.  Those  defining  penalties  are  severe,  as 
all  cotemporary  legislation  was :  but  not  more  so,  nor 
as  much  so,  as  most  of  the  nations.  Penal  laws  are  an 
everlasting  variation,  and  never  long  in  any  country 
an  absolutely  fixed  quantity.  These  and  the  other 
special  modifications  of  laws  peculiar  to  that  people 
are  of  course  not  obligatory  upon  us  now,  any  more 
than  they  wxre  upon  cotemporaneous  nations.  But 
these,  we  have  shown,  are  clearly  distinguished  from 
the  Organic  Law,  the  elementary  principles  of 
which  run  through  a  vast  number  of  their  local 
laws,  unsuitable  now  even  to  the  Hebrew  people  in 
detail ;  whilst  their  elements  are  common  to  all  na- 
tions. In  fact,  our  common  law  is  largely  borrowed 
from  Moses ;  and  so  far  as  its  moral  elements  are 
concerned,  is  all  comprehended  in  the  Decalogue. 
Thus  the  Fou7'th  commandment  stands  on  the  rock 
of  eternal  truth.  Like  all  the  others,  it  was  made 
for  man,  and  was,  therefore,  by  infinite  wisdom, 
adapted  to  promote  his  welfare  in  time,  as  we  shall 
see,  and  the  sure  grounds  of  his  hopes  for  eternity. 


94  THE  lord's  day 

For,  obliterate  the  Sabbath,  and  you  shut  up  the 
doors  of  knowledge  and  throw  the  pall  of  spiritual 
darkness  around  the  race ;  shut  out  the  light  of  the 
glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed  God,  and  you  leave 
the  world  a  prey  to  infidelity  and  sin. 


A   SACKED   REST.  95 


CHAPTEE    XII. 

OBJECTION — THE   SABBATH  WAS   A   SIGN   TO   ISRAEL, 
THEREFORE    NOT   A    PERMANENT   MORAL   LAW. 

Things   -well    known  are  used   as   signs — Sun,  moon,   and  stars — 
Rainbow — Circumcision — Stars  and  Stripes. 

This  objection  is  based  on  Exod.  xxxi.  13-17, 
as  already  stated ; — "  For  it  is  a  sign  between  me 
and  you  throughout  your  generations.  It  is  a  sign 
between  me  and  the  children  of  Israel  for  ever ;  for 
in  six  days  the  Lord  made  heaven  and  earth,  and 
on  the  seventh  he  rested  and  was  refreshed." 

It  is  perhaps  unnecessary  to  repeat  here  that  the 
reason  of  the  command  "for  in  six  days,"  etc.,  is 
a  reason  common  to  mankind,  and  is  given  in  God's 
history  of  the  creation,  so  often  sneered  at  by  op- 
ponents of  the  Sabbath.  The  reason  has  no  espe- 
cial reference  to  the  Hebrew  people :  it  is  purely 
moral,  and  therefore  everlasting — "for  ever." 

The  point  taken  as  an  objection,  is  that  it  is  a 
sign  between  Cfod  and  Israel;  therefore  it  could 
not  have  existed  as  a  moral  law  from  the  beginning; 
(although  this  is  expressly  affirmed  as  the  reason  of 
it.)     Because,  say  these  objectors,  God  created  the 


96  THE  lord's  day 

heaven  and  the  earth  in  six  days  and  rested  on  the 
seventh,  therefore  he  blessed  the  seventh  and  sanc- 
tified it  to  Israel  alone,  and  that  twenty-five  centu- 
ries after  creation  !  It  could  not  be  a  sign  to  man, 
for  whom  the  Sabbath  was  made,  but  is  a  sigti  to 
Israel,  and  proves  that  the  reason  given  in  the  text 
is  no  reason  at  all !  Obviously,  the  assumption 
here  is  that  nothing  could  be  a  sign  between  parties 
covenanting,  which  had  previously  existed.  How 
could  the  Divine  example  of  six  days'  work  and 
one  of  rest  and  refreshment  be  a  sign  or  token  of 
a  covenant  twenty-five  hundred  years  after  the  ex- 
ample was  set  ?  Impossible  !  say  these  objectors  ; 
if  it  is  a  sign,  and  betokens  a  covenant,  it  must 
spring  up  simultaneously  with  the  covenant  itself, 
and  this  proves  the  Sabbath  to  be  merely  a  Jewish 
institution,  now  for  the  first  time  established ! 

1.  Remark,  first.  The  Hebrew  word,  here  trans- 
lated sign  occurs  seventy-seven  times  in  the  Bible. 
The  first,  in  Gen.  i.  14,  signifies  the  "  lights  in  the 
firmament  of  the  heaven," — sun,  moon  and  stars — 
^'  let  them  be  for  signs,  and  for  seasons,  and  for  days 
and  for  years."  The  second.  Gen.  iv.  15,  "And 
the  Lord  set  a  mark  upon  Cain."  The  third.  Gen. 
ix.  12,  17,  "  I  do  set  my  bow  in  the  cloud,  and  it 
shall  be  for  a  toke7i  of  a  covenant  between  me  and  the 
earth.     This  is  the  tokeji  of  the  covenant." 

2.  Gen.  xvii.  "And  ye  shall  circumcise  the  flesh 
of  your  foreskin,  and  it  shall  be  a  token  of  the 
covenant  betwixt  me  and  you."    Exod.  iii.  12,  and 


A   SACRED    REST.  97 

iv.  8,  it  is  applied  to  the  miracles  by  which  Moses 
is  to  prove  his  mission  to  lead  Israel  out  of  Egypt 
— "And  this  shall  be  a  tolcen  unto  thee" — "If 
they  will  not  believe  thee,  neither  hearken  to  the 
voice  of  the  first  sign,  that  they  will  believe  the 
voice  of  the  latter  sign.''  It  is  applied  to  the 
miracles  Moses  wrought  and  is  often  translated 
miracles.  He  is  directed,  verse  17,  "And  thou 
shalt  take  this  rod  in  thine  hand,  wherewith  thou 
shalt  do  signs.''  And  Num.  xvii.  8,  10,  this  same 
"rod  was  budded,  and  brought  forth  buds,  and 
bloomed  blossoms  and  yielded  almonds" — "Bring 
Aaron's  rod  again  before  the  testimony  to  be  kept 
for  a  token  against  the  rebels."  Exod^xii.  13, 
"And  the  blood  shall  be  to  you  for  a  token'' — 
Num.  xiv.  22 — "Which  have  seen  the  tnirades 
which  I  have  done." 

Thus  various  are  the  uses  of  this  word.  A  few 
words  will  suffice  to  sweep  away  the  foundation  of 
this  argument  against  the  antiquity  and  moral  char- 
acter of  the  Sabbatic  law.  The  covenant  with  Noah 
had  for  its  sign  the  bow  in  the  cloud  ;  therefore, 
says  this  argument,  there  never  was  any  rainbow 
before  the  flood !  But  if  the  laws  of  nature  are 
uniform,  this  inference  is  false  and  absurd.  When- 
ever the  sun  and  the  cloud  faced  each  other,  there 
must  have  been  a  bow  or  a  miracle  to  prevent  it ; 
for  the  laws  of  refraction  and  reflection  of  light 
exist  in  nature,  and  must  always  give  a  bow,  when- 
ever pencils  of  sunbeams  fall  upon  the  cloud.     Now, 

.   9 


98  THE  lord's  day 

God  appointed  this  uniformity  in  nature  to  a  new 
and  beautiful  use ; — made  it  henceforth  a  sign,  an 
instrument  of  calling  up  to  the  recollection  of  Noah 
and  mankind,  the  covenant  guaranteeing  summer  and 
■winter,  seed  time  and  harvest,  as  long  as  the  earth 
endures,  and  protection  against  any  future  deluge. 
As  therefore  God's  covenant  with  Noah  and  mankind 
made  new  and  significant  use  of  a  phenomenon  ex- 
isting in  nature  from  the  beginning  of  the  world ; 
so  precisely,  God's  covenant  with  Moses  and  Israel 
made  a  new  and  significant  use  of  an  institution 
established  in  the  beginning  as  a  sign  of  everlasting 
rest  in  heaven. 

Agaiiji  God  made  a  covenant  with  Abraham  for 
himself  and  for  a  blessing  to  all  mankind — for  he  is 
constituted  the  heir  of  the  world — and  this  he  con- 
firmed— see  Gen.  xv.  9-15 — by  sacrifices  and  the 
bloody  rite  of  circumcision,  the  former  of  which 
existed  from  the  days  of  Eden.  In  "like  manner, 
the  blood  of  sacrifice  was  used  as  a  token — Exod. 
xii.  13 — on  the  houses  of  the  Israelites  on  the  night 
of  Egypt's  sorrows.  But  the  philosophy  we  oppose 
insists  that  nothing  can  be  used  for  a  sign  or  token, 
which  is  not  itself  a  new  thing. 

Again,  our  Saviour  says,  ^'  Moses  therefore  gave 
unto  you  circumcision,  (not  because  it  is  of  Moses, 
but  of  the  fathers)"  John  vii.  22.  But  circumcision 
is  the  token  of  the  covenant,  as  we  have  just  seen,  yet 
Moses  repeated  this.  (Lev.  xi.  3.)  And  Paul  (Rom. 
iv.  11)  tells  us  circumcision  is  the  sign  and  seal  of 


A   SACRED   REST.  99 

the  righteousness  of  faith — given  by  Moses  four 
hundred  years  after  it  was  given  to  Abraham. 
Therefore  we  conckide,  that  an  institution,  a  matter, 
a  thing  may  be  appointed  as  a  sign,  which  had  ex- 
isted long  before. 

Moreover,  is  not  the  eagle  banner  of  the  great 
Republic  a  sign  ?  Are  not  the  stars  and  stripes  a 
sign  ?  And  did  no  eagle's  wing  cut  the  lofty  ether 
before  '76  ?  Did  no  stars  twinkle  in  the  distant 
deep  of  the  blue  expanse,  or  stripes  adorn  the  grass 
of  the  field,  or  the  bow  in  the  cloud  before  Ameri- 
can patriot  ladies  embroidered  the  eagle  banner,  or 
stuck  the  stars  on  the  blue,  and  stitched  the  stripes 
into  a  flag  ?  The  fact  then,  that  in  this  municipal 
regulation,  the  Sabbatic  institution  is  used  as  a  sign 
of  the  covenant  between  God  and  Israel  at  Sinai,  is 
no  evidence  at  all  of  the  non-existence  of  the  con- 
stitutional law  from  the  beginning,  but  the  contrary 
rather.  If  two  men,  or  two  nations  enter  into  a 
solemn  covenant,  do  they  append  as  the  sign  and 
seal  thereof  a  mark,  token,  impression  hitherto 
utterly  unknown ;  or  do  they  affix  something  previ- 
ously well  established  and  known  ?  "  The  salutation 
of  Paul  with  mine  own  hand,  which  is  the  tohen  in 
every  epistle:  so  I  write."  Had  Paul  no  autograph 
before  he  wrote  to  the  Thessalonians  ?  of  what  use 
could  his  sign  manual  be,  if  it  had  never  existed  be- 
fore ?  The  wedding  ring,  is  it  not  a  token  of  un- 
dying affection?     But  is  this  proof  that  the  ring 


100  THE   lord's    day 

never  existed  before  it  was  set  up  as  a  token  of 
love  ?  The  fourth  of  July  is  a  token ;  had  there 
been  no  fourth  prior  to  1776  ?  The  Sabbath  was  a 
token  to  Israel ;  and  is  now  a  token  to  us,  of 
heavenly  rest. 


A    SACRED   REST.  101 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

OBJECTIONS. 

If  you  hold  to  the  Sabbath,  you  must  hold,  1.  To  its  death  penalty. 
— 2.  To  the  seventh  day. — Seventh  day,  never  used  as  a  name  for 
the  day  of  sacred  rest. — Sabbath  day  is  never  used,  but  as  the 
name  of  time  devoted  to  sacred  rest. 

.  It  has  been  urged  time  after  time,  by  way  of 
objection,  "  If  you  hold  to  the  Sabbath,  you  must 
take  it  with  the  penalty."  We  reply,  it  has  no 
penalty  as  an  organic  law.  As  abundantly  shown, 
the  ten  words,  uttered  from  Sinai  and  written  in 
stone,  have  no  penalty.  All  the  penalties  are  special 
enactments  of  municipal  law.  We  hurl  back  the 
assertion :  if  you  take  the  fifth  precept,  you  must 
take  the  Jewish  penalty  and  put  to  death  the  son 
who  curseth  father  or  mother.  So  of  the  woman 
who  violates  the  law  of  the  seventh  commandment. 
"  He  that  is  without  sin  among  you,  let  him  first 
cast  a  stone  at  her."  So  of  the  firsts  the  second, 
the  third,  the  eightJi,  the  ninth — all  capital  penalties 
according  to  statute  Mosaic;  but  without  penalty 
according  to  organic  law. 

2dly.  We  reply,  if  you  take  the  colonial  law  of 
Pennsylvania  on  the  subject  of  theft,  you  must  take  it 


102  THE    lord's    day 

■with  the  penalty  and  punish  larceny  with  death.  The 
old  laws  prohibitory  of  theft,  robbery,  arson,  burglary, 
blasphemy,  perjury,  forgery,  and  a  hundred  other 
wrong  things,  have  been  received  and  remain  as  laws, 
whilst  in  most,  if  not  all  instances,  the  penal  sanctions 
have  been  modified.  Manifestly,  the  whole  plausi- 
bility and  seeming  force  of  this  objection  lies  in  the 
confounding  of  two  things,  in  themselves  entirely 
distinct — the  law  and  moral  rule  immutable ;  and 
the  penalty,  which  is  ever  variant. 

Another  'popular  objection  involves  the  question 
of  the  day.  If  you  hold  to  the  Sabbath  you  must 
keep  the  seventh  day.  The  error  has  already  been 
noted,  which  mistakes  Sabbath  for  seventh.  Please 
Mr.  Sabbath  means  rest ;  and  "when  the  Lord  spake 
from  Sinai,  and  wrote  on  stone,  he  did  not  say  as 
you  suppose,  he  blessed  the  seventh  day  and  hal- 
lowed it,  but  the  Sabbath  day,  and  hallowed  it.  Now, 
in  resrard  to  time  I  have  several  remarks  to  make. 

1.  The  phrase  "  seventh  day  "  is  never  used  in 
the  Bible,  as  the  name  of  the  day  of  hallowed  rest. 
This  is  a  universal  negative  proposition,  and  can  be 
proved  only  by  examining  all  the  places  where  this 
phrase  occurs.  It  must  be  noted,  that  seventh  is  an 
ordinal  number ;  that  is,  it  implies  the  arranging  of 
things  in  order,  successively;  first,  second,  third, 
fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  seventh,  etc.  It  of  course  im- 
plies six  things  as  going  before  it  in  order.  It  is 
therefore  necessarily  descriptive;  it  designates  or 
points  out  the  thing  to  which  it  is  applied,  relatively 


A   SACRED    REST.  103 

to  six  or  more  other  things,  which  follow  each  other 
in  order  of  time  or  place  or  both.     In  fact,  this  is 
its  precise  use  and  only  intent — to  describe,  desig- 
nate, point  out  a  thing  as  distinguished  from  all  pre- 
ceding.    The  streets  of  this  city  are  numbered  from 
the  Delaware,  first,  second,  third,  etc.;  and  these 
ordinals  have  no  other  intent  and  use,  but  simply  to. 
describe  the  position  and  thus  enable  us  to  find  the 
place  we  desire.     Then  we  count  the  houses  west- 
ward from  the  streets,  first,  second,  seventh,  for  the 
same  precise  purpose.     Now  here,  as  in  every  possi- 
ble use  of  ordinal  numbers,  there  must  be  a  starting- 
point — a  point  of  departure,  like  the  money  unit 
in  coinage,  to  which  there  is   constant   reference. 
We  are  now  in  the  1866th  year  from  the  birth  of 
our  Saviour,  which  is  our  chronological  unit :  and 
in  the  sixteenth  day  from   a  point  of  time  immedi- 
ately succeeding  the  31st  day  of  January.     Now 
my  assertion  is,  that   this  essential   ^.nd   inherent 
meaning  of  the  word  seventh,  is  found  in  all  the 
forty-four  times,  wherein  it  occurs  in  the  phrase 
seventh-day :  and  in   every  instance  its  purpose  of 
defining  and  designating,  depends  on   its  unit  of 
departure  :  the  seventh  day,  from  what  ?     Unless 
this  question  is  answered,  it  is  no  description  at  all. 
You  tell  me  Mr.  Smith  lives  at  number  seventh ; 
can  I  find  his  house,  unless  I  know  from  what  point 
the  count  begins?     It  reminds  me  of  the  wisdom 
of  numbering  in  New  York,  where  adjoining  streets, 
for  example  Fulton  and    Ann,  running    parallel, 


104  THE   lord's   day 

count  their  numbers,  one  from  East  River,  the  other 
from  Broadway. 

The  reader  will  assuredly  excuse  me  from  the 
labour  of  inspecting  the  whole  forty-four  cases  in 
detail.  I  shall  examine  some,  and  give  him  refer- 
ence to  all  the  rest,  that  he  may  examine  for  him- 
self. In  Gen.  ii.,  2d  and  3d  verses,  you  have  sev- 
enth day  three  times.  Here  the  point  of  departure 
is  distinctly  marked — ''the  beginning,"  that  is,  of 
creation  work.  The  creating  acts  of  each  day  are 
enumerated,  first,  second,  sixth,  and  at  its  close, 
creation  work  ceased,  and  on  the  seventh  there  was 
no  creating  energy  put  forth :  rest,  cessation  from 
this  form  of  action,  characterized  this  day.  God 
from  Sinai  giving  the  reason  for  the  command, — 
Remember  the  Sabbath  day,  refers  to  this  order.  "  Six 
days  shalt  thou  labour  and  do  all  thy  work,  but 
the  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy 
God,  for  he  rested  on  the  seventh  day :  wherefore 
the  Lord  blessed,  not  the  seventli,  but  the  Sabbath 
day  and  hallowed  it."  Seventh  day^  in  these  five 
cases,  is  merely  descriptive — not  nominal — not  giv- 
ing the  proper  name. 

In  Exod.  xii.  15,  16,  describing  the  feast  of  un- 
leavened bread,  he  directs  that,  on  the  first  day, 
leaven  shall  be  put  away  until  the  seventh  day. 
These  two  instances  have  no  necessary  connection 
with  the  day  of  sacred  rest.  Chapter  xiii.  6  is  a  repe- 
tition of  the  case.  Chapter  xvi.  26  describes  the 
gathering  of  the  manna:  "Six  days  shall  ye  gather 


A   SACRED    REST.  105 

it;  but  on  the  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath."  And 
verses  27  and  28  refer  to  the  same.  Chapter 
xxiv.  16 :  "  And  the  cloud  covered  the  Mount 
six  days :  and  the  seventh  day  he  called  unto 
Moses,"  etc. ;  no  reference  to  the  Sabbath.  Chap- 
ter xxxi.  IT  is  a  repetition  of  the  reason  as  at 
the  creation.  Chapter  xxxiv.  21  is  the  same ;  and 
so  is  XXXV.  2. 

Lev.  xxiii.  3  is  a  repetition  of  the  reason.  Verse 
8  is  in  describing  the  feast  of  unleavened  bread, 
and  is  parallel  with  Exod.  xii.  15,  16.  Lev.  xiii. 
5 :  The  priest  shall  shut  up  the  leper  seven  days, 
and  "  shall  look  on  him  the  seventh  day ;"  and  this 
is  repeated  in  verses  6,  27,  32,  34,  51 ;  no  one  will 
claim  these  as  the  names  of  the  Sabbatic  rest. 
Chapter  xiv.  9  ;  "  On  the  seventh  day  of  his  exclu- 
sion from  his  house  because  of  leprosy,  he  shall 
shave  his  head,"  etc. ;  and  in  verse  39  the  similar 
case.  Num.  vi.  9  is  a  case  of  shaving  the  head, 
etc.  Num.  xix.  12,  it  occurs  twice  in  a  case  of 
purification.  Chapter  xxviii.  25 :  This  is  the  case 
of  extra  feasts  of  unleavened  bread.  Chapter  xxxi. 
19,  24 :  This  is  a  case  of  purification — "  Purify 
both  yourselves  and  your  captives  on  the  third  day 
and  on  the  seventh  day."  Deut.-  v.  14 :  This  is  the 
phraseology  of  the  Fourth  precept ;  and  xvi.  8  is 
the  feast  of  unleavened  bread.  Josh.  vi.  4,  15  : 
"On  the  seventh  day  they  compassed  the  city  seven 
times."  Did  the  Lord  order  this  on  the  Sabbath  ? 
Judg.  xiv.  15,  17 :   "  Within  the  seven  days  of  the 


106  THE   lord's   day 

wedding  feast,  a  riddle  was  propounded,  and  this  is 
the  seventh  day  referred  to.  2  Sam.  xii.  18 :  "And 
it  came  to  pass  on  the  seventh  day,  that  the  child 
died" — i.  e.,  from  the  time  "the  Lord  struck  the 
child."  1  Kings  xx.  29:  "And  they  pitched  one 
over  against  the  other  for  seven  days.  And  so  it 
was,  that  on  the  seventh  day  the  battle  was  joined;" 
that  is,  the  seventh  day  from  the  time  the  two  ar- 
mies faced  each  other.  The  Jews  would  not  fight 
on  the  Sabbath.  Esther  i.  10  :  On  the  seventh  day 
[of  the  feast]  when  the  heart  of  the  king  was  merry 
with  wine,"  etc.  Was  this  a  Sabbath?  Ezek.  xxx. 
20:  "Seventh  day  of  the  month;"  xlv.  20:  "And 
so  shalt  thou  do  the  seventh  day  of  the  month." 
Heb.  iv.  4:  "And  God  did  rest  the  seventh  day 
from  all  his  works." 

The  phrase,  Sabbath  day,  occurs  fourteen  times 
in  the  Old ;  and  twenty-two  times  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament :  and  there  can  be  no  question  raised,  as  to 
whether  it  is  applied  as  the  distinctive  name  of  the 
day  of  holy  rest  and  religious  worship.  This  is 
perfectly  undeniable;  and  I  need  not  trouble  the 
reader  with  the  detail.  If  he  is  very  particular  in 
having  his  foundations  doubly  sure,  let  him  take 
Cruden  and  examine  for  himself.  The  word  Sabbath 
as  given  in  Cruden  is  read  forty-one  times  in  the 
Old,  and  fourteen  times  in  the  New  Testament.  In 
the  plural — Sabbaths,  it  occurs  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment twenty-nine  times  and  none  at  all  in  the  New. 


A   SACRED    REST.  lOT 

Of  these  eighty-four,  as  of  the  thirtj-six  occurrences 
of  the  phrase  Sabbath  day,  there  is  no  instance  of 
its  application  to  anything  but  to  sacred  rest — 
cessation  from  servile  labour  and  consecration  of 
time  to  religious  worship. 


108  THE   lord's   day 


CHAPTER    XIY. 

THE    QUESTION    OF   TIME. 

Evasion  by  it  attempted — Remarks,  1.  The  same  absolute  portion 
impossible— 2.  Day  begins?  extra  Sabbaths  at  even — 3.  The 
seventh,  or  the  first  day  ?— A  voyage  round  the  globe  changes 
the  day — 4.  The  change  of  day  to  the  first — Sunday,  a  name  ob- 
jectionable— William  Penn  on  Lord's  day. 

We  hope  the  candid  and  attentive  reader  is  con- 
vinced, by  what  we  have  said  on  the  point  of  time, 
that  the  spirit  of  the  law  regards  the  proportion^ 
rather  than  the  portion  absolute.  One  seventh  part 
of  our  time,  we  are  bound  to  withdraw  from  secular 
labours,  physical  and  intellectual,  and  to  appropriate 
and  expend  it  in  moral  and  religious  culture,  in  the 
exercises  of  God's  worship,  private,  but  especially 
public,  as  being  the  chief  means  of  improving  our 
social  nature. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  ordinary  arts  of  sophistry, 
when  it  cannot  meet  an  argument  directly  and  in 
front,  to  seek  a  side  issue  and  lead  attention  away 
from  the  real  point  in  debate.  Apply  to  an  avari- 
cious man  for  a  contribution  for  foreign  missions,  he 
directly  becomes  much  concerned  for  the  ignorant 
and  neglected  poor — the  heathen  at  home.      Ask 


A   SACKED    REST.  109 

him  to  contribute  to  the  Bible  society,  '  you  better 
make  clothing  for  the  naked.'  Press  him  to  spend 
holy  days  in  holy  duties.  Oh  but  you  can't  tell  me 
what  time  is  holy.  You  say  the  seventh  part ;  he 
responds,  but  what  part?  One  says  the  seventh 
day ;  another  the  first ;  and  so  he  discards  both  and 
determines  to  keep  all  days  holy,  pursues  his  gains 
and  refuses  that  rest  which  God  requires  and  adapts 
to  man's  benefit. 

On  this  question  of  time  we  remark, 
1.  The  keeping  holy  of  the  same  portion  of  ab- 
solute duration  of  time,  by  persons  living  in  difierent 
latitudes  and  longitudes  all  round  the  globe,  is  a 
physical  impossibility.  There  is  no  practicable 
m.ethod  of  measuring  and  thereby  knowing  it. 
When  it  is  high  noon  with  us,  it  is  midnight  with 
our  antipodes;  sunrise  ninety  degrees  west,  and 
sunset  ninety  degrees  east  of  us.  The  same,  ident- 
ical time  is  therefore  impossible  to  be  kept  holy; 
and  the  idea  of  God  commanding  a  physical  impos- 
sibility as  a  moral  duty,  cannot  be  entertained  by 
any  rational  mind ;  and  therefore  the  pretence  of 
some  affirming  it,  savours  of  irreverence,  bordering 
on  atheism.  The  Bible  teaches  no  such  doctrine. 
Its  phraseology  everywhere  implies  simply  the  ap- 
propriation of  six  days  to  secular  pursuits ;  and 
another  day,  to  be  measured  and  ascertained  pre- 
cisely as  each  of  the  six  is  ascertained,  to  holy  and 
sacred  services.  Practical  difficulty  here  there  is 
none.     If  there  is  intelligence  enough  to  count  six 

10 


110  THE   lord's   day. 

units,  and  to  add  a  seventh,  nothing  else  lies  in  the 
way. 

2.  The  question  about  the  point  at  which  the  day- 
begins,  has  no  peculiar  difficulty  as  to  the  Sabbath, 
more  than  any  other  of  the  seven.  An  ordinary 
day,  counted  and  reckoned  as  other  days,  is  to  be 
observed  as  holy  unto  the  Lord.  We  have  before 
hinted  the  probable  error  arising  from  the  extra 
Sabbath  of  atonement  on  the  tenth  day  of  the 
seventh  month :  Leviticus  xxiii.  27-32.  This  and 
the  feast  of  the  Passover  and  the  feast  of  un- 
leavened bread,  Exodus  xii.  6,  18,  are  special  Sab- 
baths— annual  feasts  peculiar  to  the  Hebrew  nation, 
resulting  from  the  Decalogue  as  their  root,  but  not 
of  it,  as  permanent  organic  law.  The  Passover- 
lamb  was  slain  in  the  evening — or,  as  in  the  margin 
correctly  translated — "between  the  evenings  ;"  that 
is,  about  three  o'clock  afternoon,  when  the  sun  was 
half-way  declined ;  and  about  this  time  the  evening 
sacrifice  was  offered :  by  both  of  which  was  pre- 
figured, Christ's  being  crucified  for  us  in  the  last 
part  of  the  age  of  the  world,  and  his  dying  at  that 
time  of  the  day."  However  this  may  be,  certain 
it  is,  the  typical  Passover-lamb  was  slain  in  the 
evening;  and  about  midnight  the  first-born  of 
Egypt  were  stricken  down  and  there  was  a  great 
cry.  "And  Pharaoh  called  for  Moses  and  Aaron  by 
night — and  they  were  thrust  out  of  Egypt."  It  is 
also  certain  that  the  feast  of  unleavened  bread  be- 
gan  in  the   evening  of  the  fourteenth   day  of  the 


A   SACRED.  REST.  Ill 

first  month,  and  continued  until  the  one  and  twen- 
tieth day  of  the  month  at  even.'"  The  reasons  lie 
open  and  obvious.  And  this,  doubtless,  led  to  the 
designation  of  the  same  time  for  the  reckoning  of 
the  extra  Sabbath  of  the  atonement.  Leviticus 
xxiii.  32,  "  It  shall  be  unto  you  a  Sabbath  of  rest, 
and  ye  shall  afflict  your  souls  in  the  ninth  day  of 
the  month  at  even :  from  even  unto  even  shall  ye 
celebrate  your  Sabbath."  As  these  are  extra  Sab- 
baths— Jewish  institutions  and  contra-distinguished, 
for  obvious  reasons,  as  your  Sabbaths,  with  my  Sab- 
baths— the  Sabbaths  of  the  Lord;  there  is  no  just 
ground  here  for  the  inference,  -that  the  ordinary 
weekly  rest  began  in  the  evening.  On  the  con- 
trary, as  this  modification,  ''from  evening  unto 
evening  shall  ye  SahhatJi  your  Sabbath/' — shall  ye 
rest  your  rest — "shall  ye  celebrate  your  Sabbath," 
is  appended  to  these  extra  Jewish  days  of  rest,  and 
to  no  others,  the  inference  rather  is,  that  these  an- 
nual days  of  rest  are  exceptional  as  to  the  time  of 
beginning  them.  What  is  a  day  ?  If  this  be  set- 
tled in  regard  to  the  second,  the  fifth,  the  other 
days  of  the  seven,  then  it  is  decided  as  to  the 
seventh  also.  If  an  ordinary  day  properly  begins 
at  12  M.,  then  must  the  day  of  rest  begin  at  high 
noon ;  how  impracticable  this  would  *be  all  can  see 
at  once.  If  a  day  begins  at  six  P.  M.  or  at  sun- 
down, how  impracticable  and  how  often  attended 
with  retrenchment  upon  holy  time  ?  The  farmer 
goes  to  the  mill  or  blacksmith-shop  on  Saturday  after- 


112  THE   lord's    day 

noon,  expecting  to  return  before  sundown  and  to 
do  up  his  business  before  the  Sabbath  hour  begins ; 
he  has  no  watch,  it  is  cloudy,  or  the  water  is  low 
and  the  mill  grinds  slowly  ;  he  is  delayed  and  thus 
is  betrayed  into  intrenchment  upon  sacred  time. 
Such  beginning  of  the  holy  day  is  impracticable. 
For  an  annual  festival,  to  continue  several  days,  a 
more  formal  preparation,  as  is  required  for  histori- 
cal reminiscence,  obviates  these  difficulties,  which 
lead  to  continually  recurring  infractions  of  the 
Sabbatic  law.  But  if  the  day  begins,  at  an  hour 
when  all  working-men,  and  beasts,  too,  are  asleep, 
there  is  no  room  for  such  interruptions,  and  no 
difficulty  in  marking  minutes :  the  conscientious 
man  is  ever  anxious,  lest,  under  disappointment  that 
delays  him,  or  the  cloud  that  hides  the  sun  as  it 
nears  the  western  horizon,  he  may  transgress  the 
law. 

Such  rational  considerations  seem  to  call  for  the 
beginning  of  the  day,  at  the  central  point  between 
sun-set  and  sun-rise.  And  this  deduction  of  rea- 
son from  the  book  of  nature,  and  the  book  of  ex- 
perience, corresponds  with  the  book  of  revelation. 

Webster  says  of  our  leading  connective  "And," 
"It  signifies  that  a  word  or  part  of  a  sentence  is  to  be 
added  to  what  precedes."  Darkness  preceded  light: 
"  Darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep :"  this  is 
followed  by  the  creation  of  light ;  and  so,  the  eve- 
ning was  and  the  morning  addedj  made  one  day. 
No  certain  inference  can  be  however  deduced,  as 


A   SACRED   REST.  •  113 

to  the  dividing  point  of  time  between  the  days. 
There  is  something  more  distinct  at  the  rising  of  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness.  Matt,  xxviii.  1,  "  In  the 
end  of  the  Sabbath  as  it  began  to  dawn  towards  the 
first  day  of  the  week,  came  Mary,"  etc.  The  word 
rendered  '''  end,"  occurs  but  twice  more  in  the  New 
Testament.  Mark  xi.  19,  "And  when  eveyi  was 
come,  he  went  out  of  the  city ;"  xiii.  35,  "For  ye 
know  not  when  the  Master  of  the  house  cometh,  at 
even,  or  at  midnight,  or  at  the  cock-crowing,  or  in 
the  morning."  At  a  late  period  of  the  Sabbath — 
or  of  the  week  as  it  was  dawning  toward  the  first 
of  the  Sabbaths.  Whether  the  plurals  -here  mean, 
the  two  Sabbaths — the  Hebrew  and  the  Christian, 
as  confining,  or  only  as  translated,  the  tueek,  it  is 
not  necessary  for  our  present  purpose  to  determine ; 
we  are  concerned  with  the  expression,  began  to  dawn. 
As  the  rays  of  the  sun  began  to  approach  the 
eastern  horizon,  the  Marys,  having  made  all  neces- 
sary preparations,  on  their  preparation  or  day  be- 
fore their  Sabbath,  left  their  homes  at  its  close,  and 
by  the  time  they  reached  the  sepulchre,  it  was  early 
dawn.  The  expression  intimates  the  turning  point, 
when  the  rays  were  thrown  chiefly  from  the  east 
and  met  them  at  the  tomb.  This  was  ''  very  early 
in  the  morning"  of  the  first  day.  Luke  xxiv.  1. 
The  crucifixion  occurred  on  what  we  call  Friday,  at 
nine  o'clock  A.  M.  Mark  xv.  25 :  at  twelve  dark- 
ness came  on,  until  three  P.  M.,  verse  33.  Shortly 
after  he  cried  with  a  loud  voice  and  gave   up  the 

10* 


114  THE    lord's   day 

ghost.  He  was  therefore  six  hours  and  more  on 
the  cross  before  his  death ;  of  which  three  were 
shrouded  with  darkness  over  the  whole  land :  there 
remained  nine  hours  of  the  day  before  the  Sabbath, 
as  we  contend ;  that  is  before  the  day  began  to  dawn 
toward  the  Sabbath:  these  nine  hours,  and  the 
whole  of  the  Sabbath,  and  the  six  hours  from  the 
dawning  toward  the  first  day,  his  body  remained  in 
the  tomb.  But  if  the  day  begins  at  sundown ;  as 
it  was  the  vernal  equinox,  there  would  be  less  than 
three  hours  between  the  death  and  the  end  of  that 
preparation  day,  which  we  would  call  Saturday. 
During  these  three  hours  the  Jews  must  go  back  to 
the  city  and  get  an  order  for  breaking  the  legs  of 
the  three,  return  and  proceed  to  execute  the  order ; 
Joseph  after  this  has  to  return  and  beg  the  body 
from  Pilate ;  Pilate,  doubting  the  fact  of  Christ's 
death,  had  to  send  for  the  centurion  and  ask  him 
whether  he  had  been  any  while  dead,  and  when  he 
knew  that  he  had  been  dead  some  little  while,  he 
gave  the  body  to  Joseph,  who  returned  and  buried 
it.  Now  for  all  these  transactions  there  were  less 
than  three  hours.  Whatever  of  the  three  remained, 
if  any  was  possible,  was  all  we  have  to  fulfil  his  own 
declaration  that  "the  Son  of  Man  shall  be  three 
days  and  three  nights  in  the  heart  of  the  earth." 
Matt.  xii.  40.  But  if  we  account  the  dividing  of 
days  to  be  at  midnight,  then  we  have  part  of  the 
day  and  night  of  our  Friday,  the  whole  of  the  day 
and  night  of  our  Saturday,  and  part  of  the  day  and 


A    SACRED    REST.  115 

night  of  our  Sunday :  and  thus  the  conditions  of 
the  prophecy  are  fulfilled.  These  considerations, 
together  with  the  silence  of  Scripture,  satisfy  us, 
that  to  begin  the  holy  weekly  Sabbath  at  sundown 
is  a  Jewish  figment,  occasioned  by  their  magnifying 
their  own  special  feasts  above  the  -LoRil's  Sabbaths. 

3.  Our  third  question  of  time  is,  as  to  the  sev- 
enth or  the  first.  Confessedly  of  trifling  impor- 
tance, yet  it  is  controverted  with  no  trifling  zeal — 
we  may  say  violence.  In  this  we  have  verification 
of  the  uncomplimentary  remark,  that  theological 
disputes  are  often  warm  and  excited,  inversely  as 
their  importance.  As  there  is  not  matter  in  them 
worthy  of  controversy,  the  little  that  is  is  lost  sight 
of,  and  in  the  contest  victory  supplants  truth  :  and 
whoever  fights  simply  for  victory,  forfeits  all  just 
claims  to  success.  Truth,  which  alone  is  worth 
contending  for,  repudiates  such  defenders. 

We  are  told,  if  you  take  the  Sabbath,  you  must 
take  the  seventh  day.  We  answer,  this  is  a  non 
sequitur ;  and  for  several  reasons.  (1.)  The  sev- 
enth must  mean,  in  this  objection,  the  seventh  from 
the  beginning  of  creation  ;  that  is,  the  start-point ; 
and  we  affirm  the  impossibility  of  ascertaining  the 
knowledge  of  it.  No  man  can  now  affirm,  that  our 
Saturday  is  the  exact  time  in  an  unvarying  seventh 
day's  division  from  the  genesis  of  light.  This  ut- 
ter impossibility  excludes  the  idea  from  the  field  of 
morality.  (2.)  If  we  fix  the  start-point  of  the 
count  on  Tuesday,  and  call  that  first  day,  we  shall 


116  THE   lord's   day. 

call  Sunday  seventh  day.  And  this  could  be  in- 
sured in  individual  cases  by  a  little  artifice.  Sup- 
pose you  hold  a  sponge  saturated  with  mesmeric 
power  to  the  nose  of  a  seventh  day  advocate,  or 
lay  him  up  in  sleep^  by  any  opiate,  for  a  whole  day ; 
when  he  awakes  to  consciousness,  having  lost  a  day 
out  of  his  count,  his  seventh  will  be  Sunday.  (3.) 
A  voyage  round  the  world  changes  the  day ;  west- 
ward losing  one,  and  eastward  gaining  one.  That 
is,  the  westward  voyager  adds  to  the  length  of  each 
day  he  travels,  the  distance,  measured  by  time,  of 
his  day's  journey  ;  whilst  the  eastward  voyager,  by 
meeting  the  sun  sooner  each  day,  diminishes  his 
day's  length  by  the  distance  he  travels.  This  will 
be  made  evident  by  the  following  statement  from 
the  pen  of  a  distinguished  professor  of  astronomy  : 
"The  difference  in  local  time,  caused  by  difference 
of  longitude,  is  a  familiar  fact.  Any  one  who  has 
travelled  from  New  York  to  St.  Louis  must  have 
noticed  that  his  w^atch,  though  correct  when  he  left 
the  former  city,  is  more  than  an  hour  too  fast  by 
the  local  time  of  the  latter.  The  explanation,  too, 
is  simple.  Owing  to  the  diurnal  rotation  of  the  earth 
on  its  axis,  the  sun  appears  to  make  a  circuit  round 
the  earth  from  east  to  west  every  day;  i.  e.,  360°  in 
24  hours.  Hence  its  apparent  motion  each  hour  is 
15°.  And  as  St.  Louis  is  more  than  15°  west  of 
New  York,  more  than  an  hour  must  elapse  after 
the  sun  passes  the  meridian  of  the  latter,  before  it 
reaches  that  of  the  former. 


A   SACRED    REST.  117 

Suppose,  now,  a  Jew  and  a  Christian,  starting 
from  the  city  of  Washington  to  travel  in  opposite 
directions, — the  Jew  going  west,  and  the  Christian 
east,  each  at  the  rate  of  15°  per  week, — and  sup- 
pose they  commence  their  reckoning  at  six  o'clock 
on  Sunday  morning,  by  Washington  time.  At  the 
expiration  of  one  week,  when  it  is  again  six  o'clock 
A.  M.  on  Sunday  at  Washington,  the  Jew  will  be 
in  Missouri,  and  his  local  time  five  o'clock  A.  M; 
while  to  the  Christian,  out  at  sea,  the  time  will  be 
seven  o'clock  A.  M.  In  like  manner,  after  another 
week,  the  time  by  the  former  will  be  four  o'clock 
A.  M.,  and  by  the  latter  eight  A.  M.,  and  so  on, 
the  Jew's  time  growing  earlier,  and  the ,  Christian's 
later,  by  one  hour  each  week,  till,  at  the  expiration 
of  twelve  weeks,  they  meet  in  northwestern  Chin^, 
the  Jew  pronouncing  the  time  to  be  six  o'clock  P. 
M.  on  Saturday,  and  the  Christian  six  P.  M.  on 
Sunday,  and  each  will  have  observed  the  Sabbath 
on  the  same  day." 

What  a  cheap  method  of  uniting  a  divided  church ! 
Two  sects  of  Baptists,  for  example,  exist.  The 
smaller  section  separate  from  the  great  body,  on 
the  ground  that  the  seventh  day  is  the  true  Sabbath. 
No  religious  principle  is  involved — no  doctrine,  but 
only  this  question  of  time — not  ihQ  proportion,  for 
both  agree  in  the  obligation  to  keep  one  day  in 
seven  holy  unto  the  Lord ;  but  simply  whether  our 
Saturday  or  our  Sunday  is  the  proper  day  to  be 
kept  holy.     Now  let  the  Saturday  man  go  to  Cali- 


118  THE   lord's    day 

fornia,  and  then  to  China,  and  then  home  by  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  keeping  his  own  seventh  day 
rest  all  the  time,  and  the  dispute  is  over — he  wor- 
ships with  his  brethren  on  Sunday.  The  Baptist 
schism  is  healed — the  church  is  one  ! 

4.  The  change  of  the  name  and  day — not  of  the 
thing,  for  the  observance  of  the  holy  day  is  the 
same  with  all  Christians :  but  on  what  ground  do 
we  vindicate  the  Sunday  as  the  day  of  sacred  rest? 
We  admit  that  any  other  day,  Tuesday,  Thursday,  if 
agreed  upon  over  the  whole  country  and  the  world, 
would  answer  as  well.  We  deny  any  holiness  in 
time :  the  thought  is  absurd.  The  holiness  lies  in  the 
heart  of  the  worshippers.  With  the  unbelieving 
world,  Sunday  is  the  most  polluted  of  all  days.  In 
all  popish  governed  countries,  their  Sabbath  is  the 
devil's  day.  The  interests  of  Satan's  kingdom  are 
more  abundantly  advanced  on  that  day  than  on  any 
one  of  the  seven.  But  some  day  is  indispensable. 
This  must  be  agreed  upon,  or  public  worship  is  im- 
practicable. Instead,  however,  of  leaving  man  to 
settle  this  question  by  experiment  and  consultation, 
conventional  adjustment  and  agreement,  God  was 
pleased  to  decide  it  for  us.  The  first  law  he  gave 
to  man  was  the  Sabbatic  law — the  day  following  the 
six  days'  labour  is  sacred  to  God  by  his  own  com- 
mand. In  imitation  of  the  Creator's  own  example, 
he  has  given  us  also  the  glorious  and  blessed  privi- 
lege of  resting,  and  worshipping  himself.  And 
Paul  tells  us,  God  the  Son,  in  imitation  of  God  the 


A    SACRED   REST.  119 

Creator,  when  he  had  said,  "It  is  finished,"  bowed 
his  head,  and  gave  up  the  ghost,  and  entered  into 
his  rest.  "  For  he  that  is  entered  into  his  rest,  he 
also  hath  ceased  from  his  own  works,  as  God  did 
from  his."  Paul  had  just  said,  "There  remaineth 
therefore  a  Sabbatismos  for  the  people  of  God." 
Heb.  iv.  10,  9.  Christ's  finishing  his  work,' for  the 
salvation  of  lost  men,  is  followed  bj  his  entering 
into  his  rest  and  securing  a  Sabbatismos  for  his 
people.  Thus  the  creation-example  is  imitated ; 
and  this  is  a  most  satisfactory^  reason  of  the  change. 
Jesus  rose  from  the  dead  and  went  to  his  heavenly 
glory,  and  thus  consecrated  the  first  day  to  holy 
services.  His  Church  obeyed  his  command  and 
followed  his  example.     Let  us  note  the  occasions. 

(1.)  The  first  has  been  mentioned  above.  The 
pious  women  came  to  the  sepulchre  very  early  on 
the  first  day  of  the  week :  they  came  to  do  honour 
to  a  dead,  but  found  a  living  Saviour. 

(2.)  "  Then  the  same  day  at  evening,  being  the 
first  day  of  the  week,  when  the  doors  were  shut 
when  the  disciples  were  assembled,  for  fear  of  the 
Jews,  came  Jesus,  and  stood  in  the  midst,  and  saith 
unto  them.  Peace  be  unto  you."  John  xx.  19.  The 
law  being  changed  the  day  must  also  be  changed ; 
and  here  is  the  express  sanction  of  it.  The  disciples 
were  assembled  :  and  for  what  ?  No  man  can  doubt 
— for  religious  worship.  And  the  Master  enters  by 
miracle,  giving  a  new  proof  of  his  divine  mission 
and  power. 


120  THE   lord's   day 

(3.)  "And  after  eight  days,  again  his  disciples 
were  within,  and  Thomas  with  them.  Then  came 
Jesus,  the  doors  being  shut,  and  stood  in  the  midst, 
and  said,  Peace  be  unto  you."  This  second  time, 
He  meets  them  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  in  order 
to  designate  it  as  the  Sabbatism  of  the  new  covenant 
and  to  run  out  the  parallel  between  the  first  and  the 
second  creation  or  work  of  redemption.  At  the 
close  of  this  work,  which  is  "creation  more  sub- 
lime," there  must  be  a  rest  physical,  that  is,  a  ces- 
sation of  that  work ;  just  as  there  was  at  the  first 
creation :  and  then  there  must  be,  as  at  first,  a  rest 
in  the  higher  sense,  viz.,  the  delight  and  compla- 
cency resulting  from  the  contemplation  of  his  fin- 
ished work,  all  which  he  pronounced  "very  good;" 
or  as  Moses,  Exod.  xxxi.  17,  expresses  it,  "  and  was 
refreshed."  So  Christ,  having  finished  his  new 
creation-work,  entered  into  his  rest  in  the  higher 
sense;  to  contemplate  and  for  ever  rejoice  in  the 
results  of  his  work,  from  the  manger  at  Bethlehem 
to  the  tomb  of  Joseph.  "  There  remaineth  there- 
fore a  Sabbatismos  to  the  people  of  God."  And 
then  Paul  adds  the  reason,  in  the  parallel  to  which 
we  have  just  referred.  "For  he  that  is  entered  into 
his  rest,  he  also  hath  ceased  from  his  own  works,  as 
God  did  from  his."  Thus  the  apostle  demonstrates, 
from  old  Testament  authorities,  the  change  of  the 
Sabbatic  rest  for  the  New.  And  several  notices  of 
its  observance  are  recorded.  Acts  xx.  7,  "And 
upon  the  first  day  of  the  week,  when  the  disciples 


A    SACRED    REST.  121 

came  together  to  break  bread,  Paul  preached  unto 
them,  ready  to  depart  on  the  morrow."  Here  is 
not  a  special  call  of  the  people,  but  it  is  mentioned 
as  an  ordinary  occurrence — a  regular  thing.  A 
more  rigidly  close  rendering  strengthens  this  idea — 
it  is  the  case  absolute — "  the  disciples  being  assem- 
bled together."  A  similar  incidental  remark  occurs 
in  1  Cor.  xvi.  2,  "  Upon  the  first  day  of  the  week 
let  every  one  of  you  lay  by  him  in  store,  as  God 
has  prospered,  that  there  be  no  gatherings  when  I 
come."  The  order  regards  "the  collection  for  the 
saints,"  a  duty  which  he  had  urged  upon  the  Gala- 
tian  church.  Chap.  vi.  7-10.  It  is  enjoined  as  a 
regular  service.  The  churches  of  Galatia  were  so 
ordered — it  was  obligatory  upon  them.  The  church 
at  Troas,  in  Asia  Minor,  were  in  the  habit  of  assem- 
bling on  the  first  da.y.  And  the  churches  at  Corinth 
— I  say  churches ;  for  though  the  epistle  is  addressed 
"to  the  church  of  God  w^iich  is  at  Corinth,"  that 
church  included  many  congregations  or  particular 
churches,  Acts  xviii.  10,  "  I  have  much  people  in 
this  city,"  and  the  churches  of  Galatia  met  con- 
stantly on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  that  by 
apostolic  command  and  example.  But  if  we  translate 
the  phrase  as  the  same  word  is  translated,  in  Luke 
xvi.  19 — every  day — or  even,  as  in  Mat.  xxvi.  55, 
Mark  xiv.  49,  Luke  xix.  47,  and  xxii.  53,  Acts  ii. 
47,  and  iii.  1,  and  xviii.  4,  and  xix.  9 — daily — it 
indicates  still  more  strongly  their  hahit  of  meeting 
every  first  day  for  religious  worship. 
11 


122  THE  lord's  day 

Let  us  sum  up  these  evidences  of  tlie  Sabbatismos 
for  the  New  Testament  or  covenant.  Paul  demon- 
strates it  in  Heb.  iv. — that  so  it  must  be  accordinor 

o 

to  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  and  according  to 
the  very  nature  of  Christ's  work  of  the  new  cre- 
ation. Accordingly  Jesus  arose  on  the  first  day — 
the  day  immediately  after  the  finishing  of  his  work. 
He  manifested  himself  to  the  Marys.  He  met  the 
disciples  on  the  first  day  ;  once  and  again :  and  he 
met  them  for  worship  on  no  other  day.  Individuals 
saw  him  possibly  on  other  days,  but  of  this  there  is 
no  certainty.  "  He  was  seen  of  above  five  hundred 
brethren  at  once,"  1  Cor.  xv.  6,  but  at  what  time 
we  are  not  informed ;  the  probability  is  however  all 
on  the  side  of  the  first  day,  when  they  were  assem- 
bled for  worship.  Then  the  sacramental  service  at 
Troas,  the  order  for  collection  on  the  first  day  by 
churches,  at  Corinth,  and  in  Galatia  —  churches 
widely  separated.  To  all  this  must  be  added  the 
invariable  practice  of  the  church  for  more  than 
fifteen  centuries  during  which  no  dispute  arose 
against  this  practice.  Jewish  converts  embraced 
the  law,  and  to  a  large  extent,  even  when  respecting 
the  seventh  day,  fell  in  with  the  general  custom. 
This  suggests  the  additional  remark  that,  this  change 
to  the  Lord's  day,  diminished  not,  but  increased  the 
measure  and  proportion  of  time  devoted  to  sacred 
uses.  Two  Sabbaths  came  together  ;  and  it  is  abun- 
dantly evident,  that  Paul  and  his  companions  on  his 
missions,  were  in  the  habit  of  entering  the  Syna- 


A    SACRED    REST.  123 

gogues  on  the  Sabbaths,  and  reasoning  out  of  the 
Scriptures :  and  thus  the  required  transition,  by 
tolerating  both  days  for  a  time,  became  easy  and 
produced  no  confusion. 

Nor  may  we  omit  the  proof  from  Rev.  i.  10 :  "I 
was  in  the  Spirit  on  the  Lord's  day."  This  was 
about  A.  D.  95.  It  is  the  last  of  the  inspired  writ- 
ings, and  this  accounts  for  the  fact  that  this  name 
— the  Lord's  day — is  found  here  and  nowhere  else. 
Surviving  the  other  inspired  penmen  by  a  quarter  of 
a  century,  by  which  time  the  habits  of  all  Christian 
churches  became  settled  in  their  public  worship  on 
the  first,  and  with  the  well-known  reason  for  the 
change  from  the  Jewish  seventh  day  Sabbath  to  the 
first,  John  adopts  this  phrase,  the  Lord's  day^  with- 
out the  least  hint  explanatory.  I  was  in  the  Spirit 
— under  the  supernatural  influences  of  the  Holy 
Ghost — on  the  Lord's  day.  This  is  proof  conclu- 
sive that  the  phrase  was  perfectly  understood  at 
that  time.  John  had  been  banished  by  the  edict 
of  the  Emperor  Domitian  to  "Patmos,  for  the 
word  of  God,  and  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus 
Christ."  Cut  off  from  Christian  associations,  he 
was  honoured  with  the  Divine  presence ;  and  in 
entering  up  the  record  of  his  visions  and  messages, 
he  honours  his  Lord  by  using  an  expression  which 
could  give  no  information  of  date,  but  as  it  was  the 
well-known  epithet  for  the  day  of  sacred  rest. 
Sixty-one  years  before  this,  the  Lord  had  twice  met 
John,  along  with  the  other  disciples,  on  the  first  day 


124  THE  lord's  day 

of  the  week,  in  that  upper  room,  the  doors  being 
shut  for  fear  of  the  Jews ;  and  now  he  meets  him 
in  banishment  to  a  desert  island,  and  John  records 
the  day — his  Lord's  day.  In  their  contest  with 
popery,  the  Reformers  rejected  the  numerous  festal 
days  of  the  Romish  calendar,  and  Luther  especially 
was  fierce  against  them.  Hence  some  ill-informed 
people  assume  that  he  rejected  the  Sabbath  too : 
this  is  not  true.  He  did  deny  indeed  the  Jewish 
Sabbaths  as  simply  Jewish — denying  that  Hebrew 
legislation  binds  us  any  farther  than  the  Decalogue 
extends.  He  rejected  all  feast  days,  "  nisi  dies  Do- 
minicus — except  the  Lord's  day.'' 

Sunday  is  a  name  objectionable,  becaiTse  it  im- 
plies that  we  worship  the  Sun,  and  have  devoted 
this  day  to  his  service.  The  same  objection  applies 
to  our  names  for  the  other  days.  They  are  all  bor- 
rowed from  our  pagan  ancestors,  being  the  names 
of  their  imaginary  gods,  prefixed  to  the  word  day  : 
Monday,  appropriated  to  the  worship  of  the  moon ; 
Tuesday,  to  Tuis,  or  the  war  god  of  our  ancestors ; 
Wednesday,  to  Wodin ;  Thursday,  to  Thor,  the  god 
of  thunder ;  Friday,  to  the  goddess  Frigga,  or  Frea ; 
Saturday,  to  Saturn.  The  objections  made  by  the 
Friends,  or  Quaker  society,  to  these  names,  are  not, 
in  our  judgment,  frivolous.  David  says  of  the  hea- 
then gods — "Their  drink-offerings  of  blood  will  I 
not  off'er,  nor  take  up  their  names  into  my  lips." 
Ps.  xvi.  4.  And  Zech.  xiii.  2 :  "  I  will  cut  off"  the 
names  of  the  idols  out  of  the  land."     I  know  it 


A   SACRED   REST.  125 

may  be  said,  this  only  means  they  shall  not  dwell 
on  our  lips  as  objects  of  worship.  Still,  it  is  to  be 
regretted  that  we  have  not  better  names  for  the 
days  respectively;  and  I  cannot  but  respect  the 
founder  of  Pennsylvania  for  the  introduction  of 
the  more  respectful  epithets  into  the  very  first  act 
of  legislation  in  his  province. 

I  quote  from  an  able  report  of  a  committee  in 
the  Legislature,  in  A.  D.  1860,  on  the  petitions  for 
the  abrogation  of  the  Sabbath  protecting  laws : 

"In  the  'Great  Law,'  passed  in  the  Assembly 
at  Chester,  soon  after  his  first  landing,  December 
12,  1682,  William  Penn  has  recorded  his  estimation 
of  the  Sabbath  as  one  of  the  main  safeguards  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty.  In  the  first  article  of 
this  code,  the  design  of  which  is  declared  to  be, — 
'  That  God  may  have  his  due,  Cassar  his  due,  and 
the  people  their  due,  so  that  the  best  and  firmest 
foundation  may  be  laid  for  the  present  and  future 
happiness  of  both  the  government  and  the  people 
of  this  province,'  he  thus  ordains : — '  To  the  end 
that  looseness,  irreligion,  and  atheism  may  not  creep 
in  under  the  pretence  of  conscience  in- this  province, 
be  it  further  enacted,  by  the  authority  aforesaid, 
that  according  to  the  good  example  of  the  primitive 
Christians,  and  for  the  ease  of  the  creation,  every 
first  day  of  the  week,  called  the  Lord's  Day,  peo- 
ple shall  abstain  from  their  common  toil  and  labour, 
that  whether  masters,  parents,  children,  or  servants, 
they  may  the  better  dispose  themselves  to  read  the 
11 » 


126  THE  lord's  day 

Scriptures  of  truth  at  home,  or  to  frequent  such 
meetings  of  religious  worship  abroad  as  may  best 
suit  their  respective  persuasions.'  "  (Hazzard's  An- 
nals.) 

He  does  not  use  the  word  Sabbath,  nor  the  word 
Sunday;  but  ^' first  day  of  the  iveek  and  the  Lord's 
Day,"  both  Scriptural  epithets.     So  let  it  stand. 


A    SACRED    REST.  127 


CHAPTEE    XV. 

BENEFITS  OP  THE  SABBATH. 

These  may  be  considered  in  reference  to  man  in- 
dividually, and  to  man  socially :  and  in  both  these 
respects,  as  to  its  bearing  upon  his  physical  condi- 
tion ;  and  upon  his  intellectual,  his  moral,  and  his 
spiritual  interests ;  for  time  and  for  eternity. 

I.  How  is  the  individual  benefited  pliysically  by 
the  Sabbath  ?  By  rest,  in  the  primary  sense — ces- 
sation from  motion — from  activity — from  labour. 
The  Creator  has  so  formed  us,  that  incessant  activity 
must  destroy  the  powers  of  action  and  bring  to  an 
end  the  organism  of  our  body.  Death  and  utter 
dissolution  is  the  inevitable  consequence  of  labour 
without  rest :  and  thus,  the  denial  of  rest,  eventu- 
ates in  entire  incompetency  for  motion  and  labour. 
God's  law  is,  that  man  shall  have  rest ;  as  William 
Penn  expresses  it,  "for  the  ease  of  the  creation." 
Adapted  to  this  is  the  arrangement  of  day  and 
night ;  sleep  is  a  necessity  to  man,  and  darkness, 
though  not  necessary  to  sleep,  yet  is  a  great  pro- 
moter of  it;  whilst  light,  as  a  positive  element  in 
nature,  by  its  power  to  stimulate,  tends  to  wakeful- 
ness and  action.     But  the  Creator  has  seen  proper 


128  THE  lord's  day 

to  make  not  one  rest  in  the  circuit  of  the  sun,  suffi- 
cient. Day  and  night  shall  be  as  long  as  the  earth 
endures,  but  additional  to  this,  total  abstinence  from 
labour  one-seventh  part  of  the  time,  is  made  a  privi- 
lege. 

2.  The  necessary  consequence  of  cessation  from 
work  is  resuscitation  of  the  exhausted  powers.  A 
recuperative  action  of  the  vital  functions  follows, 
and  "  Tired  nature's  sweet  restorer,  balmy  sleep  " 
has  great  assistance  in  her  office  of  benevolence, 
from  effects  of  the  seventh  part  of  working  time 
being  similarly  appropriated.  Into  the  argument 
for  a  seventh  day  rest,  deduced  from  multitudinous 
experiments  on  animal  nature  in  man  and  beast,  we 
cannot  even  enter.  Thousands  of  experiments  have 
shown,  that  the  man  or  the  beast  of  burden,  which 
rests  one  day  in  seven,  can  do,  and  actually  does, 
more  labour  than  the  beast  or  tlie  man  that  works 
seven  days  in  the  week.  God's  will,  revealed  in  his 
moral  law,  is  perfectly  consistent  with  his  will  re- 
vealed in  his  physical  laws.  They  are  counterparts 
of  the  same  infinite  wisdom. 

3.  By  necessary  consequence,  the  health  of  our 
animal  frame  is  promoted  by  this  law.  Why  it  must 
be  so,  is  easily  seen.  Exhaustion  is  disease  ;  it  re- 
veals the  weaker  parts  of  our  bodily  mechanism  and 
tends  to  their  destruction ;  which  tendency  is 
arrested  by  rest  and  resuscitation.  But  detail  here 
is  also  inconsistent  with  our  limited  plan.  The 
world   all  knows,  that  a  Sabbath-keeping  commu- 


A   SACRED   REST.  129 

nity,  other  things  being  equal,  is  more  healthy  than 
one  that  disregards  the  Sabbatic  law. 

4.  And  this,  because  this  law  leads  to  personal 
cleanliness.  The  alliance  is  intimate  and  insolvable 
between  natural  and  moral  filth :  and  the  Sabbath, 
bj  calling  to  religious  social  exercises  and  enjoy- 
ments, prompts  and  constrains  to  a  change  of  the 
soiled  garments  of  labour,  for  the  clean  and  neat 
dress  of  social  Christianity.  This  is  obvious  even 
in  communities  where  the  holy  day  is  greatly  pros- 
tituted to  sports  and  plays.  This  purifying  influ- 
ence of  a  seventh  day's  rest,  is  proverbial  in  the 
phrase,  Sunday  clothes.  We  might  also  have  re- 
marked under  the  preceding,  that  the  greatly  in- 
creased calls  for  medicine  and  counsel,  on  Sunday, 
in  a  labouring  population,  shows  that  labour  looks 
'to  this  day  for  health.  The  fact  is  not  complimen- 
tary to  the  Christian  reverence  for  the  day ;  yet  it 
evinces  its  tendency. 

Now,  these  four  remarks,  being  generalized,  show 
the  physical  benefits  to  society,  which  is  composed 
of  individuals :  the  aggregate  benefits  are  the  sum 
of  social  benefits.  When  every  person  is  eased,  re- 
freshed, and  has  health  promoted,  and  cleanliness 
secured,  society  is  thus  benefited. 

II.  The  intellect  of  the  individual  observer  of  the 
Sabbath  is  necessarily  improved.  Religious  exer- 
cises and  devotion,  whether  private  or  public,  are 
impossible — indeed,  inconceivable,  without  mental 
activity.     Religion  is  possible  only  with  intelligent 


130  THE   lord's    day 

beings,  endowed  with  a  moral  sense :  and  this  moral 
sense  even,  though  an  essential  power  of  our  nature, 
yet  is  dependent  for  its  possibility  of  exercise,  upon 
intellect.  I  mean  that  the  moral  sense,  that  is, 
conscience  includes  and  presupposes,  mental  percep- 
tions— intellectual  exercises.  I  cannot  convict  my- 
self of  wrong-doing  and  feel  abased  and  humbled 
for  my  sin,  unless  I  have  an  intelligent  idea  of  some 
law  that  I  have  violated.  All  the  religious  duties- 
of  the  individual  therefore  call  into  action  his  men- 
tal powers  upon  lawful  objects :  and  here,  as  every- 
where, all  legitimate  activities  increase  the  powers 
of  action.  The  mind  improves  by  its  own  right 
activities.  What  a  school  then  we  have  here?  One- 
seventh  part  of  our  time,  sacredly  devoted  to  such 
services  as  necessarily  increase  our  powers  of  mind 
and  enlarge  the  sphere  of  our  knowledge. 

III.  But  an  all  important  item  of  Sabbatic  obser- 
vance, is,  its  provision  for  instruction ;  for  the  pre- 
sentation of  truth  to  the  mind  and  its  discussion, 
analysis  and  application  to  the  various  conditions 
and  necessities  of  individuals  and  society.  The 
Sabbath  is  not  a  day  of  inaction — of  stupid  idleness, 
but  for  the  full  action  of  our  higher  nature.  It 
provides  subjects  of  study.  It  furnishes  aids  to 
mental  development — the  whole  system  of  sacred 
ordinances  ;  including  the  Scriptures  and  all  their 
varied  instructions;  and  the  ministry  of  religion 
and  the  sacramental  services.  ^'The  priest's  lips 
should  keep  knowledge  and  they  should  learn  the 


A   SACRED    REST.  131 

law  at  his  mouth."  There  never  has  been  a  system 
for  mental  improvement  comparable  to  this.  Here 
is  the  Book  of  universal  instruction ;  and  here  is  an 
order  of  men  set  apart  to  its  study,  their  lives  being 
devoted  to  its  exposition :  men  of  good  natural  tal- 
ents and  of  the  best  education.  These  men  spend 
six  days  in  searching  the  Scriptures  and  studying 
the  condition  and  necessities  of  the  community ;  and 
on  the  seventh  they  communicate  to  the  people  the 
results  of  their  labour.  Under  this  system  of  teach- 
ing the  understanding  cannot  but  be  furnished  with 
knowledge  of  all  kinds,  for  the  Bible  contains  the 
elements  of  all  knowledge;  and  the  reasoning 
powers  must  necessarily  be  increased,  for  the 
preacher  must  ''reason  out  of  the  Scriptures."  Ac- 
cordingly, the  general  intelligence  of  a  nation  is 
very  accurately  measured  by  the  degree  of  its 
strictness  in  Sabbatic  observance.  The  man  of 
seventy  has  been  ten  years  at  school,  under  direc- 
tion of  the  best  cultivated  intellects  of  his  country; 
and  if  he  arrive  not  at  a  respectable  degree  of  in- 
telligence, it  must  be  owing  to  sad  neglect  on  his 
own  part. 

IV.  But  intellectual  culture  is  an  incident,  rather 
than  an  object.  The  end  of  the  Sabbath,  is  our 
moral  and  spiritual  improvement ;  and  the  glory  of 
God  its  ordainer.  Man's  religious  element  is 
brought  into  action  and  directed  to  its  proper  end. 
Between  the  soul  and  God  the  intercourse,  common 
through  the  week,  is  redoubled  and  that  of  the  in- 


132  THE  lord's  day 

dividual  is  carried  on  the  Sabbath  into  the  social 
current  and  thus  a  feeling  of  unity  is  generated  and 
enlarged.  The  benevolent  affections  are  cherished 
under  the  deeper  feelings  of  religious  reverence. 
The  doctrines  taught  lead  to  unity  of  heart;  for  all 
the  members  of  that  one  body  which  Christ  hath 
redeemed  with  his  own  blood,  are  constantly  led  to 
contemplate  the  oneness  of  their  interest  in  the 
great  salvation.  Thus,  that  charity  which  is  the 
bond  of  perfectness  cements  society  together  and 
ensures  that  unity  of  co-operation,  so  important  to 
the  harmonious  movement  of  our  social  system. 

V.  But  the  bearings  of  all  these  influences  upon 
the  interests  of  eternity  are  in  themselves  of  infinite 
value ;  and  in  their  reaction  upon  our  social  feelings 
in  time,  their  importance  can  scarcely  be  appreciated. 
To  be  brought  squarely  up  to  face  the  responsibili- 
ties of  our  condition  once  a  week ;  to  inquire, 
whence  came  I  ?  whither  go  I  ?  how  can  I  prepare 
for  my  duties  here  and  my  felicities  in  the  future 
world  ?  How  far  am  I  responsible  for  the  welfare 
of  all  these  with  whom  I  am  associated  and  sur- 
rounded daily?  Shall  I  ever  meet  them  again  in 
time  ?  How  shall  I  meet  them  in  eternity  ?  All 
such  thoughts  have  a  happv  influence  upon  us,  in 
checking  wrong  feelings  and  gendering  and  direct- 
ing the  action  of  right  ones. 


A  SACRED   REST.  133 


CHAPTER    Xyi. 

THE    MORAL  FORCE  OF  THE  SABBATH,  AND  ITS  BEAR- 
INGS ON  NATIONAL  WEALTH. 

Wherever  the  ten  words  are  continually  held 
up  before  the  minds  and  pressed  upon  the  hearts  of 
a  whole  people  ;  and  wherever,  in  immediate  con- 
nection with  them,  the  glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed 
God  is  constantly  unfolded  before  their  minds  ;  and 
thus  the  way  of  meeting  the  high  requirements  of 
the  Decalogue,  is  made  familiar  to  the  popular  con- 
science ;  it  is  not  possible  the  public  morals  should 
not  improve  and  reach  a  high  degree  of  excellence. 
The  pure  elements  of  moral  law ;  and  the  purify- 
ing doctrines  of  salvation — from  the  guilt  and 
pollution  of  sin,  constitute  the  most  perfect  agencies 
and  instrumentalities,  which  the  God  of  all  mercies 
has  ever  furnished  to  a  ruined  world,  for  its  recov- 
ery. Now,  these  are  the  invariable  accompaniments 
of  the  sacred  rest  day.  Evangelical  Protestantism 
cannot  exist,  without  a  day  devoted  to  moral  and 
religious  instruction  and  the  reverent  worship  of 
the  living  God.  The  word  of  God  must  be  read 
and  expounded,  the  praises  of  the  Most  High  must 
be  made  to  ring  in   loud  tones  from  millions  of 

12 


134  THE  lord's  day 

tongues;  the  voice  of  prayer  must  ascend  from 
millions  of  sanctified  hearts ;  the  pure  doctrines  of 
the  Holy  Bible  must  be  inculcated  upon  the  myriads 
of  youthful  minds,  which  with  thrilling  emotion  and 
voice,  sing  ^'let  us  be  joyful" — ''we  must  not  work, 
we  must  not  play,  because  it  is  the  Sabbath  day." 
These  instrumentalities,  being  the  substance  of 
Sabbath  duties,  can  no  more  exist  without  great 
practical  effects  in  promoting  good  morals,  than  the 
rain  of  heaven  and  the  genial  warmth  of  the  sun, 
can  spread  over  the  well  tilled  fields,  vrithout  caus- 
ing the  grass  and  the  grain  to  spring  forth  for  the 
benefit  of  man  and  of  beast.  A  Sabbath-keeping 
— a  church-going  people,  spending  the  day  as  the 
law  itself  requires,  must  necessarily  be  a  moral 
people.  A  Sabbath-profaning  people:  even  where  a 
small  part  of  the  day  is  occupied  in  attendance  upon 
religious  ceremonies,  performed  chiefly  in  a  lan- 
guage which  they  do  not  understand,  but  where  the 
day  is  chiefly  devoted  to  sports,  pleasures  and  pas- 
times ;  dissipation,  fun  and  frolic,  cannot  possibly 
be  a  moral  and  law-abiding  people ;  if  order  is  duly 
observed,  it  must  be  at  the  bayonet's  point.  Ac- 
cordingly there  is  a  striking  contrast  between  coun- 
tries where  the  different  systems  prevail. 

We  may  take  in  here  the  hearings  of  the  Sabbath 
on  national  wealth. 

"To  the  Sabbath,"  says  Gilfillan,  p.  249,  ''did 
England  in  no  small  degree  owe  a  government  so 
puissant  and  beneficial   as  that   of  Cromwell,  the 


A    SACRED    REST.  135 

happy  domestic  influence  of  which  is  admitted  by 
Bishop  Burnet,  while  its  foreign  aspect  is  eulogized 
by  a  no  less  unbiassed  judge,  Sir  Walter  Scott,  who 
says,  "  Perhaps  no  government  was  ever  more  re- 
spected abroad."  To  the  Sabbath,  as  a  principal 
cause,  was  Britain  indebted  for  such  a  reign  as  that 
of  William  III.,  Prince  of  Orange,  and  for  the  su- 
periority of  our  present  Constitution  to  the  govern- 
ments of  Russia,  France,  and  Italy,  where  the  peo- 
ple are  in  chains,  which  the  expansive  spirit  of  a 
nation  imbued  with  the  influence  of  Christian  truth 
and  institutions,  if  we  could  suppose  it  thus  fettered, 
would  calmly  break  in  pieces.  The  policy  of  those 
rulers,  who  amuse  their  subjects  with  frivolous  ob- 
jects on  the  Lord's  day,,  that  they  may  not  by  seri- 
ous thought  be  led  to  discover  that  they  are  men, 
and  deeply  injured  men,  may  be  cunning  and  suc- 
cessful for  a  time,  but  it  is  not  wise,  since  its  pur- 
pose is  as  short-sighted  as  it  is  unjust.  The  con- 
vulsions on  the  continent  in  1848  furnished  impres- 
sive illustrations  of  this  truth.  It  is  a  fact,  that 
these  convulsions  were  more  destructive  in  Roman 
Catholic  kingdoms,  where  there  was  nothing  entitled 
to  the  name  of  a  Sabbath,  than  in  Protestant  com- 
munities, where  the  institution,  inasmuch  as  it 
brought  along  with  it  the  opportunities  of  a  more 
rational  worship  and  of  better  instruction,  had  not 
suff'ered  so  much  deterioration.  No  Protestant  prince 
lost  his  throne.  And  it  is  especially  worthy  of 
grateful  remembrance,  that   Great  Britain,  where, 


136  THE  lord's  day 

above  almost  all  countries,  the  Lord's  day  receives 
its  meed,  though  far  from  its  due  meed  of  honour, 
stood  firm  and  unscathed  in  all  its  interests  amidst 
the  shakings  of  the  nations  of  Europe.  ''I  see," 
says  the  Chevalier  Bunsen,  personating  Hippolytus, 
"  that  you  have  erected  most  wonderful  factories 
and  cotton  mills ;  but  you  do  not  make  the  poor 
people,  men,  women,  and  children,  work  them  on 
Sundays,  as  the  Gauls  [the  French]  do  in  their 
country."  On  p.  250  he  says  :  "  In  Scotland,  eigh- 
teen hundred  soldiers  suffice  to  keep  the  peace, 
while  Ireland  required,  for  the  eight  years  preceding 
1852,  troops  numbering,  at  an  average,  more  than 
twenty-five  thousand."  What  says  M.  Montalem- 
bert,  in  the  name  of  a  commission  reporting  to  the 
French  Parliament  in  1850  on  Sabbath  observance? 
After  remarking  that  the  Almighty  conferred  suc- 
cess and  security  on  human  labour  in  proportion  as 
nations  respect  the  Lord's  day,  he  refers  in  proof 
to  England  and  the  United  States,  and  says:  ''Wit- 
ness that  city,  London,  the  capital  and  focus  of  the 
commerce  of  the  world,  where  Sunday  is  observed 
with  the  most  scrupulous  care,  and  where  two  and 
a  half  millions  of  people  are  kept  in  order  by  three 
battalions  of  infantry,  and  some  troops  of  guards, 
whilst  Paris  requires  the  presence  of  fifty  thousand 
men."  Such  is  the  expense  of  irreligion  and  the 
loss  of  the  Sabbath.  But  how  was  it  in  the  days 
of  atheism  and  blood ;  when  God's  holy  day  was 
abrogated,  and  a  tenth  day  festival  established  by 


A    SACRED    REST.  137 

the  Constituent  Assembly,  in  lieu  of  the  Sabbath ; 
and  the  worship  of  a  harlot,  in  place  of  God's  sa- 
cred ordinances  ?  So  must  it  be  in  any  country 
that  abolishes  the  Divine  law  of  the  two  tables. 
Brute  force  must  then  rule,  and  the  very  conception 
of  liberty  be  lost.  ^'  He  that  makes  haste  to  be 
rich  shall  not  be  unpunished ;"  and  if,  in  our  eager- 
ness to  make  money,  we  abrogate  the  law  of  the 
Sabbath,  we  shall  find  its  sanctions  terrible  as  Israel 
found  them.  "As  the  partridge  sitteth  on  eggs  and 
hatcheth  them  not ;  so  he  that  getteth  riches,  and 
not  by  right,  shall  leave  them  in  the  midst  of  his 
days,  and  at  his  end,  shall  be  a  fool."  Jere.  xvii.  11. 
And  verse  24 :  "  If  ye  diligently  hearken  unto  me, 
saith  the  Lord,  to  bring  in  no  burden  through  the 
gates  of  this  city  on  the  Sabbath  day,  but  hallow 
the  Sabbath  day,  to  do  no  work  therein  ;  then  shall 
there  enter  into  the  gates  of  this  city  kings  and 
princes,  sitting  upon  the  throne  of  David,  riding  in 
chariots  and  on  horses,  they  and  their  princes,  the 
men  of  Judah  and  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem : 
and  this  city  shall  remain  for  ever."  Verse  27 : 
"  But  if  ye  will  not  hearken  unto  me,  to  hallow  the 
Sabbath  day,  and  not  bear  a  burden,  even  entering 
in  at  the  gates  of  Jerusalem  on  the  Sabbath  day : 
then  will  I  kindle  a  fire  in  the  gates  thereof,  and  it 
shall  devour  the  palaces  of  Jerusalem,  and  it  shall 
not  be  quenched."  This  solemn  warning  was  un- 
heeded, and  the  prophet  was  even  grossly  maltreated 
for  its  delivery :   nevertheless,  the  wrath  of  heaven 

12    ^5 


138  THE  lord's  day 

came  speedily ;  Israel  was  terribly  scourged  and 
carried  away  into  Babylon.  Nelie.  xiii.  15:  ''In 
those  days  saw  I  in  Judali  some  treading  wine- 
presses on  the  Sabbath,  and  bringing  in  sheaves, 
and  lading  asses;  as  also  wine,  grapes,  and  figs, 
and  all  manner  of  burdens,  which  they  brought  into 
Jerusalem  on  the  Sabbath  day :  and  I  testified 
against  them,  in  the  day  wherein  they  sold  victuals." 
Verse  16  :  "  There  dwelt  men  of  Tyre  also  therein, 
which  brought  fish,  and  all  manner  of  ware,  and 
sold  on  the  Sabbath  unto  the  children  of  Judah, 
and  in  Jerusalem."  17 :  "  Then  I  contended  with  the 
nobles  of  Judah,  and  said  unto  them.  What  evil 
thing  is  this  that  ye  do,  and  profane  the  Sabbath 
day?"  Verse  18:  "Did  not  your  fathers  thus,  and 
did  not  our  God  bring  all  this  evil  upon  us  and  upon 
our  city  ?  Yet  ye  bring  more  wrath  upon  Israel 
by  profaning  the  Sabbath?" 

Ezek.  also,  xxi.  8,  26,  mentions  among  the  great 
sins  of  the  people,  that  they  "  have  hid  their  eyes 
from  my  Sabbaths,  and  I  am  profaned  among  them." 
Observe.  1.  We  thus  learn,  that  Sabbath-breaking 
was  a  leading  cause  of  the  Babylonish  captivity. 
2.  We  learn  farther,  that  foreign  traders  were  largely 
instrumental  in  this  corruption :  precisely  as  it  is 
now  with  us  in  these  United  States.  It  is  chiefly, 
imported  atheism  and  low  dealers  that  give  life  to 
the  assaults  upon  our  Sabbatic  laws  and  the  religious 
foundations  of  our  morality.  3.  Even  within  the 
sphere   of   agricultural   necessity — so   alleged,   the 


A    SACRED    REST.  139 

gathering  of  the  crops,  is  a  sin  against  God  on 
the  holy  day  of  rest.  4.  Officers  of  the  law  sin ; 
in  winking  at  this  sin;  ''have  hid  their  eyes  from 
my  Sa,bbaths."  Sunday  papers  are  hawked  along 
our  streets  on  the  Lord's  day  and  our  public  servants 
don't  see  it.  5.  And  Oh,  how  many  fires  has  God 
kindled  up  all  over  the  land  and  the  water :  what 
bursting  of  boilers ;  runnings  off  the  track ;  collisions 
of  locomotives  and  cars  ;  burning  of  depots,  bridges, 
stores  and  dwellings.  All  these  are  visitations  from 
God  and  largely  in  punishment  of  Sabbath-break- 
ing. 6.  We  learn  too  the  philosophy  of  this  class 
of  things.  Employers  disregard  the  law  of  God : 
they  force  their  employees  to  work  on  Sunday 
or  lose  their  places:  their  consciences  revolt  at 
first,  but  soon  become  blunted — seared  as  with  a 
hot  iron.  But  conscience  polluted  in  reference  to 
one  part  of  God's  law,  cannot  possibly  continue 
long  pure  in  reference  to  other  points.  "Whoso- 
ever shall  keep  the  whole  law,  and  yet  offend  in  one 
point,  he  is  guilty  of  all,"  James  ii.  10.  And  the 
reason  is  obvious — the  law  of  God  is  a  unit — it  is 
his  will  revealed  as  a  rule  of  action  to  his  creatures : 
resistance  to  his  will  in  anything,  shows  a  heart  at 
enmity  with  him.  7.  Thus,  corporations  which  boast 
that  they  have  no  souls,  expel  the  souls  from  the 
bodies  of  their  employees — for  when  a  man  has  no 
conscience,  he  has  only  the  soul  of  a  brute ;  then, 
the  leprosy  of  conscienceless  sin  spreads  over  the 
whole  inner  man  and  no  moral  element  can  bind  him. 


140  THE   lord's    day. 

Hence  these  terrible  disasters.  They  are  the  Baby- 
lonish captivity  of  God's  curse — "Ye  bring  more 
■wrath  upon  Israel  by  profaning  the  Sabbath;"  and 
this  "fire  shall  not  be  quenched."  There  is  God's 
sentence;  let  Sabbath-breakers  read  it:  especially 
let  monied  corporations  which  profane  the  Sabbath 
by  their  agents  and  let  all  stockholders  in  such  cor- 
porations— read  God's  sentence  upon  their  wicked 
business  and  fear  before  Jeremiah's  messaore. 

o 

If  God's  veracity  can  be  rehed  on,  the  Sabbath- 
keeping  nation  must  be  prosperous  and  happy,  even 
in  a  worldly  sense.  "  Thou  shalt  ride  upon  the 
high  places  of  the  earth,  and  I  will  feed  thee  with 
the  heritage  of  Jacob  thy  father  ;  for  the  mouth  of 
the  Lord  hath  spoken  it."  It  is  most  unreasonable 
to  expect  that  success  will  permanently  attend  rob- 
bery. The  man  or  people  who  rob  God  of  his  holy 
day,  may  look  for  the  frown  of  his  disapprobation. 
Pharaoh's  fate,  brought  on  him  by  his  cruelty  and 
oppression  in  destroying  the  Israelites'  Sabbath, 
ought  to  be  a  salutary  warning.  Disasters  must, 
by  the  necessity  of  an  abused  conscience  and  dissi- 
pated habits  enfeebling  the  powers  employed  in 
labour,  paralyze  effort  and  diminish  production. 
Steamers  on  our  western  waters,  blow  up  of  course, 
nothing  else  is  looked  for ;  but  the  philosophy  that 
traces  most  of  these  terrible  visitations  to  want  of 
conscience,  is  not  well  understood  and  but  little 
studied.  Gilfillan  and  Montalembcrt  refer  to  Eng- 
land for  illustration  ;  but  with  all  our  short-comings 


A   SACRED    REST.  141 

in  this  behalf,  the  United  States  are  still  the  most 
strict  nation  in  the  observance  of  the  holy  day: 
and  for  this  A^ery  reason  the  most  prosperous  people 
on  the  face  of  the  earth.  No  nation  has  ever  moved 
onward,  in  everything  that  belongs  to  civilization, 
with  such  amazing  rapidity.  Our  wealth  and  re- 
sources are  inexhaustible,  and  their  development 
is  largely  owing  to  the  lofty  tone  of  our  national 
morality.  And,  as  observed  before,  the  measure  of 
this  morality  is  in  exact  proportion  to  our  Sabbath 
observance.  Thus  we  reach  a  standard  of  admeas- 
urement, by  theory;  which  fails  never,  when  brought 
to  the  test  of  experiment.  Nations  are  prosperous, 
great  and  happy  and  influential  for  good,  the  world 
over,  just  in  proportion  as  they  remember  the  Sab- 
bath day  and  keep  it  holy. 


142  THE  lord's  day 


CHAPTEK    Xyil. 

KEEP  IT  HOLY  TO  THE  LORD. 

Negatively — Positively — Cessation  from  business  —  Sports,  plays, 
pleasures — Quibbles — Necessity  and  mercy — Necessities  numerous 
— Feigned — Positive — Private — Public. 

It  has  been  already  noted  that  holiness,  in  the 
sense  of  moral  excellence,  no  more  than  blessedness, 
in  the  sense  of  happiness,  is  not  imputable  to  time. 
The  conception  is  absurd.  Both  these  belong  only 
to  moral  agents,  who  only  are  capable  of  moral 
purity  and  felicity.  When,  therefore,  the  Sabbath 
day  is  blessed  and  sanctified,  the  meaning  is,  that  it 
is  made  and  appointed  for  a  blessing  to  man,  by 
being  set  apart  to  resting  from  worldly  labours,  and 
consecrated  or  devoted  to  the  holy  service  of  God. 

By  keeping  it  holy  to  God  negatively,  we  simply 
mean  cessation  from  secular  or  worldly  business. 
"  Six  days  shalt  thou  labour  and  do  all  thy  work" 
— or  business — complete  thy  mission.  "But  the 
seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God ; 
in  it  thou  shalt  not  do  any  work."  Now,  if  a  man's 
"business"  lies  in  physical  or  bodily  labour,  there 
must  be  a  suspension  of  his  toil:  if  his  "business" 
— ^his  worldly  avocation — consists  of  intellectual  ex- 


A    SACRED    REST.  143 

ertion,  this  is  to  be  suspended;  or  if  his  "business" 
include  both  kinds  of  work  intermixed,  then  both 
forms  of  exertion  must  cease.  Thus  provision  is 
made  for  the  relief  of  both  mind  and  body :  and 
this  for  one  seventh  part  of  the  time.  Detail  as  to 
kinds  of  business  is  not  consistent  with  the  nature 
of  organic  laiv.  To  enumerate  all  the  kinds  of 
both  forms,  or  either  form  of  labour,  in  which  men 
in  all  ages  may  be  engaged,  is  impossible.  Most 
silly  would  it  be  for  a  ploughman  to  say.  The  fourth 
precept  don't  forbid  ploughing ;  a  blacksmith,  It 
does  not  forbid  making  axes  or  shoeing  horses ;  a 
carter.  It  does  not  forbid  hauling  brick  ;  a  printer, 
There  is  no  prohibition  of  printing ;  a  lawyer,  There 
is  nothing  expressly  against  legal  research  on  the 
Sabbath.  Against  such  absurdity,  the  wording  of 
this  part  of  the  Hebrew  Constitution  is  a  prophj^lac- 
tic  remedy.  The  original  word,  translated  "work," 
does  not  mean  simply  labour  of  mind  or  body,  or 
both,  but  "business," — avocation^  trade,  purstdt, 
employment.  It  is  often  translated  "workmanship" 
— as  in  Exod.  xxxi.  3,  5.  Whatever  be  a  man's 
employment  during  the  six  days  is  to  be  suspended 
on  the  seventh ;  and  this,  so  far,  makes  it  a  Sab- 
bath. 

But  the  law  equally  prohibits  meditation,  and 
study,  and  the  outgo  of  desire  after  his  business  on 
the, holy  day;  for  this  interferes  with  other  parts 
of  the  consecration. 

It  also  cuts  off  pleasures,  sports,  and  plays, — all 


144  THE  lord's  day 

mere  amusements.  The  evangelical  prophet  gives 
us  a  clue  to  this  exposition.  "  If  thou  turn  away 
thy  foot  from  the  Sabbath,  from  doing  thy  pleasure 
on  my  holy  day,  not  doing  thine  own  ways,  nor  find- 
ing thine  own  pleasure,  nor  speaking  thine  own 
words."  Isa.  Iviii.  13.  And  this  exposition  is  in- 
dispensable to  the  very  end  of  the  institution,  which 
is  to  honour  God  by  spending  the  day  in  his  holy 
service. 

These  remarks,  though  brief,  are  sufficient  to  shut 
off  the  miserable  quibbles,  sometimes  thrown  out, 
about  not  feeding  cattle,  cooking  victuals,  riding  or 
walking  to  church.  "  Thou  shalt  not  do  any  work," 
say  these  champions  of  reason,  as  an  adequate  guide 
in  duty,  therefore  a  man  must  not  wash  his  hands, 
put  on  his  clothes,  lead  his  horse  to  water,  feed  him, 
saddle  or  harness  him  and  ride  to  church  !  Whilst 
the  work  prohibited  is  the  ordinary  "business"  of 
the  six  days,  and  not  at  all  any  of  the  works  of 
necessity  or  mercy,  for  which  this  phraseology  of 
the  law  fully  provides.  And  this  is  the  popularly 
received  interpretation.  When  the  Church  or  the 
nation  appoints  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer,  or  of 
thanksgiving  and  praise,  they  consecrate  and  ob- 
serve it  by  a  suspension  of  all  "business,"  and  a 
resort  to  the  sanctuary  for  religious  worship. 

This  provision  for  works  of  necessity  and  mercy,  in- 
herent in  the  organic  law,  is  developed  in  subsequent 
legislation ;  and  our  Saviour  rebukes  the  querulous 
pharisees  for  their  perversity  and  ignorance:  "What 


A    SACRED    REST.  145 

man  shall  there  be  among  you  that  shall  have  one 
sheep,  and  if  it  fall  into  a  pit  on  the  Sabbath  day, 
will  he  not  lay  hold  on  it  and  lift  it  out  ?  Where- 
fore it  is  lawful  to  do  well  on  the  Sabbath  days." 
Matt.  xii.  11 :  "  Thou  hypocrite,  doth  not  each  one 
of  you,  on  the  Sabbath,  loose  his  ox  or  his  ass  from 
the  stall  and  lead  him  away  to  watering?"  Luke 
xiii.  15.  Works  of  mercy  even  to  a  brute  are  not 
prohibited. 

So  also  is  it  in  regard  to  works  of  necessity,  about 
which  infidelity  has  made  itself  merry  at  times. 
Jeremiah  informs  us,  this  is  no  new  thing :  for  in 
Jerusalem's  ancient  sorrows,  "  the  adversaries  saw 
her,  and  did  mock  at  her  Sabbaths."  Lam.  i.  7. 
Scoffing  is  cheap  at  first  cost,  but  dear  in  the  long 
run.     There  is  a  day  of  settlement  ahead. 

One  of  the  most  fatal  fallacies  of  false-hearted 
men  in  this  regard,  is  in  their  creating  their  own 
necessities  and  then  making  them  a  plea  for  violat- 
ing the  law.  A  country  merchant  arranges  his 
business  and  travel  so  as  to  be  on  the  road  himself, 
and  start  his  goods  homeward,  so  as  to  insure  their 
transportation  on  the  Sabbath :  then  puts  in  his 
plea  of  necessity  and  robs  God  of  his  day.  A  lime 
or  brick-burner  puts  fire  to  his  kiln  on  Friday,  and 
then  claims  necessity  as  a  justification  for  Sabbath 
profanation.  A  railroad  company  contract  for  the  de- 
livery of  goods  in  ten  days  at  a  distant  point,  knowing 
that  the  whole  ten  will  be  necessary  to  meet  their 
contract,  one  of  which  ten  is  the  Sabbath,  and  then 

13 


146  THE  lord's  day 

plead  the  necessity  of  their  own  creation,  as  a  jus- 
tification for  violation  of  law.  That  is,  in  all  such 
cases,  the  wrong  doer  takes  advantage  of  his  own 
wrong,  and  that  in  the  face  of  man's  law  and  God's. 
Let  all  such  villany  know  that  it  cannot  succeed. 
"  Be  not  deceived ;  God  is  not  mocked  :  for  what- 
soever a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap."  Gal. 
vi.  1.  The  government  also  feigns  necessity  in  the 
matter  of  mails  and  post-offices.  The  people  of 
the  United  States  lived^  and  were  happy  and  pros- 
perous, when  a  letter  required  three  days  and  a 
half  to  pass  from  New  York  to  Washington ;  and 
yet  now, -when  part  of  one  day  only  is  required, 
commerce  cannot  dispense  v/ith  Sunday  mails — they 
are  a  necessity,  and  this  necessity,  created  by  ava- 
rice, and  having  no  foundation  but  lust  of  gain,  is 
flung  in  the  face  of  God  as  a  reason  to  justify  the 
violation  of  his  law ;  and  thus  a  Christian  people 
*'  bring  more  wrath  upon  Israel  by  profaning  the 
Sabbath."  ''Ye  are  cursed  with  a  curse:  for  ye 
have  robbed  God,  even  this  whole  nation."  Mai. 
iii.  9.  How  large  a  proportion  of  our  recent  ca- 
lamities and  present  perils  is  a  visitation  from  God 
for  these  transgressions  of  his  law,  it  is  not  fojr  us 
to  say.  "  Shall  I  not  visit  for  these  things?  saith 
the  Lord :  and  shall  not  my  soul  be  avenged  on 
such  a  nation  as  this?"  They  " have  dealt  very 
treacherously  against  me,  saith  the  Lord.  They 
have  belied  tlie  Lord,  and  said.  It  is  not  he :  neither 
shall  evil  come  upon  us ;  neither  shall  w,e  see  sword 


A   SACRED   REST.  147 

nor  famine."  Jere.  v.  9,  12.  For  none  of  these 
violations  of  the  Divine  law  is  there  any  real  ne- 
cessity. They  all  spring  from  lust  of  money,  and 
evince  a  preference  for  the  worship  of  Mammon 
over  the  worship  of  God :  they  exhibit  a  purpose, 
among  the  people  and  in  the  nation,  to  adore  the 
almighty  dollar  and  to  bow  down  before  the  golden 
calf. 

A  real  necessity,  which  has  moral  power  to  sus- 
pend the  law,  must  be  of  God's  creation,  not  man's. 
"When  the  authority  which  established  the  law  is  put 
forth  for  its  suspension  in  a  given  case,  then  the 
doing  of  the  thing  forbidden  in  general  is  now,  and 
in  this  particular,  permitted,  and  is  not  a  sin.  If 
a  sheep  or  a  man  fall  into  a  pit,  or  my  house  takes 
fire  on  the  Sabbath,  it  is  my  duty  to  use  every  effort 
to  prevent  the  destruction  of  life  and  property. 
But  let  no  man  purposely  set  his  house  on  fire,  or 
pitch  his  sheep  into  a  pit,  and  then  insult  reason 
and  God  by  justifying  his  own  wickedness. 

On  this  whole  subject  of  necessities,  no  conscien- 
tious Christian  has  much  difficulty.  If  the  heart 
be  right — if  it  purpose  to  obey  God,  scruples  of 
conscience  are  thrown  into  the  balances  of  the 
sanctuary,  and  the  scale  turns  to  a  right  decision. 
It  is  only  where  the  heart  is  depraved  and  racked 
with  unholy  desires,  that  conscience,  as  a  discrimi- 
nating faculty,  abides  more  than  a  moment  in  a 
state  of  equilibrium  on  the  question  of  doing  secular 
service   on    the   Lord's    day.     A    pure    conscience 


148  THE  lord's  day 

adopts  the  rule — '^  let  every  man  be  fully  persuaded 
in  his  own  mind:"  if  there  is  a  doubt,  pause — "he 
that  doubteth  is  damned  [condemned]  if  he  eat; 
because  he  eateth  not  of  faith;  for  whatsoever  is 
not  of  faith  is  sin." 

These  negations  are,  to  us  practically,  infinitely 
numerous.  A  few  more,  by  way  of  sample,  it  may 
be  well  to  mention.  (1.)  Reading  newspapers  or 
books  which  treat  of  matters  of  worldly  concern- 
ment. (2.)  Visiting  for  pleasure  is  a  very  common 
offence  and  often  formally  defended,  though  clearly 
prohibited  as  not  being  a  duty  to  God.  (3.)  So 
Sunday  dining  parties  are  a  high  offence,  of  which 
no  conscientious  Christian  is  ever  guilty.  (4.)  Bar- 
bering  as  a  "business"  is  a  sin  on  Sabbath.  The 
poor  barber  has  as  good  a  right  to  freedom  from 
labour  on  the  Lord's  da}^,  as  the  tonsured  wiglit  who 
makes  a  slave  of  him.  If  being  shaved  is  a  neces- 
sity, it  is  one  of  his  own  creation  and  therefore  his 
sin.  Let  him  put  it  into  the  same  class  with  wash- 
ing and  eating  and  do  it  at  home  and  permit  freedom 
to  the  poor  shaver.  (5.)  Cooking  victuals — for  this 
infidelity  has  often  scoffed  and  displayed  its  silliness 
for  ridicule.  Christian  families  everywhere,  feel  it 
their  duty  not  to  exact  any  extra  services  off  the 
cook  on  Sabbath  day :  but  on  the  contrary,  always 
so  arrange  this  necessity,  as  to  afford  the  fullest 
practicable  liberty  to  the  cook  and  her  aids,  to  at- 
tend to  Sabbath  privileges.  And  it  is  for  this 
reason,  such  families  have  less  trouble  and  better 


A    SACRED    REST.  149 

success  in  procuring  such  service,  than  those  Avho 
profane  the  Sabbath,  and  tyrannize  over  their  ser- 
vants. (6.)  Where  baking  is  a  business,  every 
arrangement  practicable  ought  to  be  made  for  the 
freedom  of  the  hands  that  do  the  work.  The  mir- 
acle of  a  double  supply  of  manna  on  the  day  pre- 
ceding, and  none  on  the  Sabbath,  is  instructive. 
We  ought  to  secure  the  same  ends,  by  ordinary 
means,  as  far  as  practicable :  just  as  "we  supply  an 
educated  ministry  in  room  of  the  miraculously 
qualified  preachers  on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  The 
great  majority  of  families  and  the  most  healthy,  all 
over  the  land,  bake  no  bread  on  the  Lord's  day. 
And  Nehemiah  "testified  against  them,  in  the  day 
wherein  they  sold  victuals,  wine,  grapes  and  figs." 
(7.)  Plays,  games,  races  and  theatres,  corrupting 
morals  on  week-days,  are  peculiarly  injurious  and 
unjust  on  the  Sabbath.  Their  introduction  is  a 
great  aim  of  the  foreign  combination,  now  organized 
in  our  country  to  overthrow  our  Sabbath,  and  that 
as  a  means  of  introducing  a  religion  of  forms,  cor- 
ruption and  despotic  power :  and  all  this  "  under 
pretence  of  conscience  "  as  William  Penn  foresaw 
in  A.  D.  1682. 

We  pass  over  to  the  positive  duties.  Idleness, 
as  before  remarked,  is  a  sin  ;  and  therefore  the  Sab- 
batic law  provides  abundant  employment  and  of  a 
higher  nature,  for  the  holy  day. 

Here  we  must  exercise  the  grace  of  brevity :  and 
the  more  readily,  because  the  positive  duties  are 
13  « 


160  THE   lord's    day 

openly  known  and  read  of  all  men.  Many  are 
indeed  private ;  and  in  kind  common  to  all  days ; 
differing  on  the  Lord's  day  only  in  degree.  Among 
these  we  follow  Penn. 

1.  In  naming,  that  "  they  may  the  better  dispose 
themselves  to  read  the  Scriptures  of  truth,  at  home." 
Private,  devotional  reading,  meditating  on,  studying 
the  Scriptures  of  truth,  covers  secret  prayer — fam- 
ily religion,  instruction  of  the  household — as  Penn 
says — "Masters,  parents,  children,  or  servants:" 
they  each  are  to  dispose  themselves  to  this  exercise. 
Personal,  private  devotional  reading  and  care  con- 
templated. Family — home  training,  by  all  the  now 
immensely  extended  and  complicated  means  of  in- 
struction— family  Sabbath-schools — family  preach- 
ing, singing  God's  praises,  (though  Penn  probably 
did  not  specially  commend  this)  family  prayer. 

2.  The  semi-public  services  of  the  Sabbath-school 
are  an  admirable  aid  and  auxiliary  to  family  drilling 
— not  a  substitute  for  it ;  but  an  aid  :  and  a  pass- 
port to  the  public  services.  This  institution  may 
not  aspire  to  a  third  estate  in  the  church :  but  must 
be  kept  in  its  true  position  under  the  control  of  the 
spiritual  government  of  the  congregation  ;  as  a  very 
important  branch  of  the  church's  solemn  charge. 

3.  The  public  worship  of  the  sanctuary  is  the 
great  instrumentality  of  the  Sabbatic  law.  The 
observance  of  a  Sabbath,  without  an  holy  convoca- 
tion and  an  abrogation  of  all  servile  work,  is  an 
unheard    of   impossibility.     The   necessary    conse- 


A   SACRED    REST.  151 

quences — the  bearings  of  it  upon  health,  wealth, 
intelligence  and  morals  is  open  and  obvious  over 
the  whole  Christian  world.  These  topics  have  been 
up  already,  and  need  not  now  be  expanded.  Suf- 
fice it  to  say — the  prosperity,  the  wealth,  the  intel- 
ligence, the  morality  and  religion  of  every  nation 
has  each  its  exact  measurement  in  the  degree  of  its 
actual  Sabbath  observance. 

The  two  nations,  which  pre-eminently  regard  the 
Lord's  day — England  and  America,  now  rule  the 
destinies  of  the  world ;  and  to  them  are  committed 
by  high  heaven,  the  glorious  commission  of  pro- 
claiming the  salvation  of  God  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth;  and  of  bringing  all  the  nations  under  the 
dominion  of  government  by  moral  law.  But  we 
may  not  farther  repeat. 


162  THE  lord's  day 


CHAPTEE    XVIII. 

DUTY  OF   HEADS  OF   FAMILIES,  AND    NATIONS — PLEA 
OP  FOREIGNERS — LET  US  ALONE. 

Relations — 1.  To  son  and  daughter — 2.  To  his  man-servant  and 
his  maid-servant — 3.  Nor  thy  cattle — 4.  And  thy  stranger  that  is 
within  thy  gates. 

We  have  not  specially  noted  the  relation  of  this 
organic  law,  to  heads  of  families.  It  is  addressed 
to  the  individual  man — "  Thou  shalt  not  do  any 
work  " — follow  up  any  business.  But  if  the  indi- 
vidual be  the  head  of  a  house — if  he  stand  in  any 
responsible  relation  to  any  other  persons  or  things, 
the  constitutional  rule  views  him  in  all  these  rela- 
tions, and  holds  him  to  his  responsibilities.  For  all 
his  faculties,  powers,  talents,  capabilities  of  doing 
good  or  evil,  the  Creator  and  universal  proprietor 
holds  every  man  to  account.  "  Occupy  till  I  come ;" 
and  at  his  coming  the  account  must  be  rendered. 
Carrying  with  us  the  well-established  rule  of  her- 
meneutics ;  that,  where  a  duty  is  commanded,  the 
contrary  sin  is  forbidden ;  and  where  a  sin  is  for- 
bidden, the  contrary  duty  is  commanded — let  us 
glance  at  the  relations  of  this  individual. 

1.   To  Ms  son  and  his  daughter.    These  are  under 


A   SACRED   REST.  153 

his  control.  He  has  the  right  and  power  of  goy- 
ernment  over  them :  he  is  bound  for  their  mainte- 
nance and  education ;  has,  to  a  large  degree,  the 
formation  of  their  characters,  their  physical  habits, 
their  intellectual,  moral,  and  religious  training ;  and, 
to  society  and  to  God,  is  accountable  for  their  con- 
duct. These  powers  and  responsibilities  are  not,  as 
has  been  supposed,  consequences  anticipated,  by 
reason  of  his  expenditure  of  time  and  labour,  and 
money  in  their  early  support ;  but  all  flow  from  the 
divine  constitution  of  our  nature,  by  which  the 
father  is  appointed  God's  agent  to  attend  upon  this 
very  thing.  If  therefore  the  son  or  the  daughter 
transgress  the  command,  the  father  must  give  account 
of  it.  He  was  vested  with  power  to  restrain,  and 
he  neglected  his  duty — like  Eli,  whose  "  sons  made 
themselves  vile  and  he  restrained  them  not."  If  a 
father  from  looseness  of  discipline,  irreligion,  and 
atheism  train  up  such  children,  he  may  reasonably 
expect  a  Hophni  and  Phinehas,  and  to  hear  some 
day  news  "at  which  both  the  ears  of  every  one  that 
heareth  shall  tingle."  Let  parents  study  their  re- 
lations and  accountabilities.  Let  them  see  and  know, 
that  "  a  child  left  to  himself  bringeth  his  mother  to 
shame;"  yea  and  his  father  too.  Let  your  children 
have  liberty — the  freedom  of  the  streets,  the  thea- 
tres, the  saloons,  the  rum  shops,  and  lager  beer 
houses ;  then,  parents  !  lay  out  your  accounts  for 
heavy  tidings :  drive  them  to  work  or  sports  on  the 
Lord's  day  and  they  will  soon  work  your  ruin  and 


154  THE  lord's  day 

their  own.  But,  per  contra,  train  them  up  in  the 
nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord.  Seize  for 
them  the  promises  and  keep  them  under  the  restraints 
this  law  implies,  and  they  will  furnish  you  many  a 
quiet  and  peaceful  Sabbath. 

2.   To  his  man-servant  and  his  maid-servant. 

Slavery  has  never  had  the  sanction  of  God,  in 
any  other  sense,  than  as  monarchical  governments 
or  wicked  wars  have  been  sanctioned  of  God.  The 
Bible  has  always  recognized  its  existence  as  an 
evil,  and  tolerated  it  as  an  evil  to  be  remedied  and 
brought  to  an  end.  That  inequalities  in  human 
condition  should  exist,  is  a  manifest  provision  in  the 
arrangeraents  of  divine  wisdom.  Had  man  kept  his 
first  estate  of  purity  and  subjection  to  God,  there 
would  still  have  been  a  necessity  for  a  government 
in  human  hands,  by  the  application  of  divine  laws 
in  regulating  the  intercourses  of  society.  Rulers 
of  various  grades  must  have  existed.  The  very  na- 
ture of  society  involves  this.  Adam  was  made  the 
natural  head  and  also  the  moral  head  and  ruler  of 
his  race.  He  was  appointed  to  keep  and  dress  the 
garden ;  and,  beyond  doubt,  his  children,  had  they 
all  remained  pure  and  holy,  would  have  occupied 
positions  relatively  to  each  other,  of  superiority  and 
of  inferiority. 

"  Order  is  nature's  first  law ;  and  this  confest; 
Some  are  and  must  be  greater  than  the  rest." 

But  sin  rendered  these  unavoidable  inequalities 


A   SACKED    REST.  155 

grievous,  oppressive,  and  often  intolerable ;  because 
sin  is  a  tyrant  and  all  that  is  burdensome  and  cruel 
in  the  exercises  of  power,  growing  out  of  these 
diversified  relations,  has  its  root  in  sin.  "When,  and 
because,  man  became  the  slave  of  sin  and  Satan,  he 
became  also  the  slave  of  his  fellow-man ;  for  his  fel- 
low-man was  a  fellow-sinner.  Therefore  the  divine 
law  made  provision  for  these  inequalities ;  but  this 
provision  by  no  means  contains  an  approval  of  them. 
God  made  man  upright  and  yet  his  law^  provided  for 
a  fallen  and  sinful  condition ;  yet  surely,  this  pro- 
vision gives  no  sanction  to  sins  prohibited.  The 
law  assumes  the  relation  of  master  and  servant  as  a 
fact  and  legislates  for  its  regulation ;  just  as  it 
recognizes  blasphemy,  idolatry,  rebellion  against 
parental  authority,  sexual  pollution,  false  witness, 
&c.,  as  facts,  and  prescribes  rules  for  their  restraint 
and  punishment. 

"Now  I  say.  That  the  heir,  as  long  as  he  is  a 
child — a  minor — differeth  nothing  from  a  servant, 
though  he  be- lord  of  all."  Hence  the  rules  and 
reasons  above  remarlfed  on,  in  regard  to  the  son  and 
the  daughter,  are  equally  pertinent  to  the  man- 
servant and  the  maid-servant.  The  master  has  the 
same  authority  over  the  servants  as  over  the  chil- 
dren, for  government,  for  instruction,  for  restraint 
or  coercion  as  to  labour.  Consequently  he  is  under 
exactly  corresponding  obligations.  He  is  responsi- 
ble to  the  author  of  the  law,  for  their  labour  and  for 
their  cessation   from  labour.     Be    the   relation  of 


156  THE  lord's  day 

master  and  servant  constituted  as  they  may — 
wjiether  by  purchase  "with  money,  or  by  being 
born  in  his  house ;  and  whether  permanent,  as  in 
slavery,  or  temporary,  as  in  hirelings ;  whilst 
it  lasts,  the  master's  responsibility  lasts.  If  his 
hired  servants  do  servile  work  for  him  on  the 
Lord's  day,  he  must  render  account  to  God  for  this 
iniquity. 

3.  Nor  thy  cattle.  Working  animals, — beasts  of 
burden,  in  whatever  form  their  strength  is  exerted 
for  the  benefit  of  man  and  under  his  direction,  come, 
all  within  the  sweep  of  this  precept.  But  now,  a 
man's  oxen  and  horses  are  a  part  of  his  capital ; 
and  differ  from  houses  and  lands  and  farming  uten- 
sils, and  money  the  representative  of  all,  only  in 
this ;  that  the  live  stock  are  sentient  beings,  capable 
of  suffering  pains  from  abuse  and  excessive  labour, 
which  is  abuse.  With  allowance  for  this  merciful 
protection  to  animal  life,  we  see  no  difference  be- 
tween this  sort  of  capital  and  any  other;  and  there- 
fore must  think,  that  the  spirit  of  the  law  holds  the 
owner  of  all  capital  responsible  for  working  it  him- 
self or  having  others  to  work  it  on  the  Lord's  day. 
It  is,  consequently,  as  much  and  as  really  a  trans- 
gression of  law,  to  work  cotton  or  iron  works, 
whether  propelled  by  water  or  steam,  as  to  work 
animals,  the  cruelty  excepted.  Nor  is  it  in  the 
power  of  logic  to  show,  that  a  farmer  who  drives  his 
own  team,  with  a  load  of  his  own  wheat  to  market 
on  the  Sabbath  day,  is  more  an  offender  against  law, 


A   SACRED    REST.  157 

than  the  capitalist  who  sits  in  church  at  the  same 
time,  but  whose  capital,  equal  in  amount,  or  ten 
times  greater,  is  running  railroad  cars  or  cotton 
machinery  on  the  same  holy  day.  "What  a  man  does 
by  his  agent,  he  does  himself.  He  that  pa3^s  wages 
to  a  thief  or  robber,  for  assisting  to  accomplish  his 
evil  designs,  is  himself  a  robber  or  thief.  No  moral 
axiom  is  more  obvious  and  more  generally  admitted. 
We  conclude  that  stockholders  in  Sabbath-breaking 
companies,  whether  stripped  of  their  souls  by  the 
exorcising  power  of  an  incorporating  act  or  not,  are 
Sabbath  breakers,  and  will  be  held  accountable  to 
the  law  and  its  Author,  God.  Oh  !  that  all  friends 
of  the  Sabbath,  to  whom  God  has  given  success  in 
business,  would  see  to  it,  that  their  capital  employed 
in  violating  the  Sabbath,  may  not  be  accusing  them 
before  the  beneficent  Giver ;  whilst  themselves  are 
testifying  personally,  in  the  sanctuary,  in  favour  of 
the  Sabbatic  law.  It  is  a  question  worth  serious 
prosecution,  how  far  men,  who  have  prospered  in 
business  until  their  capital  has  outgrown  their  con- 
cern, so  that  they  have  a  surplus  to  invest  in  some 
other  way,  have  ventured  it  in  Sabbath-breaking 
stocks ;  and  have  suffered  loss  and  even  ruin  in  con- 
sequence. And  may  it  not  be  asked,  whether  Chris- 
tian men  who  thus  offend  are  not  more  likely  to 
suffer  for  such  sin,  than  others.  Assuredly  God  is 
at  least  as  much  offended  by  sin  in  his  own  people ; 
and  as  likely  to  chastise  them  on  its  account ;  as  he 
is  with  the  same  sin  in  others  who  profess  no  regard 

14 


158  THE  lord's  day 

to  him  and  his  laws,  and  whom  he  punishes  for  their 
transgressions. 

4.  And  thy  stranger  tliat  is  tvitliin  thy  gates. 

Gates,  in  eastern  cities  and  in  ancient  times,  were 
places  of  public  resort.  In  large  towns  they  were 
often  fortified  strongly  with  bulwarks  and  towers  of 
defence.  They  were,  moreover,  places  of  trade — 
market-houses,  as  you  see  in  the  reference  to  Nehe- 
miah — and  they  were  court-houses,  where  magis- 
trates dispensed  justice.  To  be  withiyi  thy  gates, 
then,  can  mean  nothing  less  than  to  be  under  the 
protection  of  the  civil  and  military  power  of  the 
city.  And  as  protection  begets  allegiance  for  the 
time  being,  the  stranger  or  person  born  in  or  com- 
ing from  a  foreign  land,  voluntarily  pledges  obedi- 
ence to  the  law  and  subjection  to  the  government 
of  the  family  and  household  in  which  he  has,  with 
its  consent,  located  himself.  And  as  the  city,  the 
State,  the  nation  consists  of  the  households  included 
in  it,  the  stranger  owes  allegiance  to  government  in 
all  these  forms.  Moreover,  there  is  an  obvious  sense 
in  which  he  is  more  rigidly  bound  in  this  allegiance 
than  the  sons  and  the  servants  born  in  the  house, 
city,  and  nation.  The  home-born  or  the  purchased 
slave,  and  the  home-born  son,  did  not  come  into  the 
household,  city,  and  State  by  their  own  voluntary 
action,  as  did  the  stranger.  He  came  in  of  his  own 
accord,  and  he  abides  of  his  own  will.  He  can  go 
away  whensoever  he  pleases.  His  coming  was  a 
contract.     He  knew  the  laws  when  he  came  in  :   or 


A   SACRED   REST.  159 

if  not,  he  acted  very  foolishly.  His  coming  in  is  a 
real  bona  fide  promise  of  subjection  to  them  whilst 
he  sojourns  in  the  land.  In  this  sense  he  is  more 
obviously  bound  than  those  born  or  brought  into 
the  household,  city,  or  State.  His  is  voluntary ; 
theirs  is  not  primarily  so.  These  facts  are  indis- 
putable and  these  obligations  are  insolvable  but  by 
the  destruction  of  society  and  government.  If 
strangers  could  come  into  a  family  without  coming 
actually  under  the  laws  of  the  household,  two  or 
three  such  ungoverned  intruders  must  break  up  and 
destroy  the  household.  And  so  of  the  city,  State, 
or  nation.  Thus  the  Gallic  nations  were  subverted 
by  the  Romans.  Thus  the  Roman  Empire  was 
overturned  by  the  Huns,  the  Goths,  the  Vandals. 
Thus  the  Danes  swept  off  the  Britons  ;  the  Angles 
and  Saxons  the  Danes ;  and  the  Xormans  the  Saxons. 
Nations  have  perished  chiefly  by  foreign  interference. 
So  passed  away  the  aborigines  of  America.  Hear 
the  voice  of  Mount  Yernon :  "  Against  the  insidi- 
ous wiles  of  foreign  influence  (I  conjure  you  to  be- 
lieve me,  fellow-citizens)  the  jealousy  of  a  free  peo- 
ple ought  to  be  constantly  ■2k,-v(^kQ',  since  history  and 
experience  prove  that  foreign  influence  is  one  of 
the  most  baneful  foes  of  Republican  government." 
The  voice  from  Mount  Sinai  is  re-echoed  from  Mount 
Vernon:  Keep  the  stranger  within  thy  gates  subject 
to  thy  laws.  The  head  of  the  house,  the  city,  the 
State,  is  responsible  for  the  foreign  inmate,  and 
bound  to  restrain  him  from  Sabbath  profanation. 


160  THE   lord's   day 

Yet  here,  in  free  America,  a  Christian  nation, 
we  have  a  combination  of  foreigners,  who  volun- 
tarily emigrated  from  their  own  country,  and  were 
kindly  received  within  our  gates,  arraying  them- 
selves under  the  leadership  of  Jews,  and  Deists, 
and  Atheists,  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  subverting 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  laws  of  our  religion 
and  of  our  government — a  law  that  has  adorned 
the  statute  book  of  Pennsylvania  for  one  hundred 
and  eighty- three  years^a  law  that  has  governed 
man,  for  whom  it  was  made,  wherever  a  knowledge 
of  true  religion  has  not  been  wholly  lost,  from  the 
beginning  of  the  world.  This  conspiracy  against 
the  fourth  commandment  we  are,  by  itself,  com- 
manded to  resist,  and  to  enforce  its  sacred  observ- 
ance upon  all  the  strangers  within  our  gates :  and 
woe  be  to  this  city,  state,  nation,  if  we  permit  this 
renewed  attack  upon  our  organic  law  to  triumph. 


A   SACRED    REST.  161 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

OBJECTION — THE    SUNDAY  LAWS    OF   THE    STATE — 
CURTAIL   LIBERTY. 

German  combination — laws  are  a  restraint — every  precept  of  the  ten 
restrains — not  bondage  but  freedom. 

I  CANNOT  easier  and  better  express  this  objection, 
than  by  quoting  a  paragraph  from  the  New  York 
Spectator  for  September  13th,  1859,  which  is  found 
in  a  very  able  article  of  the  Princeton  Review  for 
October  of  that  year.  It  presents  it  in  the  language 
of  a  foreigner  addressing  a  public  meeting  of  for- 
eigners assembled  to  resist  American  laws,  that 
"  The  free  thoughts  which  they  had  brought  with 
them  from  Germany  should  be  established  here." 
Men,  born  under  despotic  governments  and  held  in 
political  slavery  all  their  lives,  no  sooner  arrive  in 
this  free  Protestant  country,  than  they  become  re- 
formers— revolutionists  and  aim  at  the  overthrow 
of  our  institutions,  Christianity  itself  included. 
This  speaker  is  reported  as  exclaiming :  "  Free  Ger- 
mans and  citizens  of  America,  let  us  join  hand  in 
hand  with  all  other  free  citizens  around  us,  to 
oppose  a  law  which  is  unjust,  and  an  infringement 
on  our  sacred  liberty.  The  Sunday  laws  are  only 
11* 


162  THE  lord's  day 

tlie  tools  used  by  cliques  of  politicians  to  further 
their  own  ambitious  ends,  in  opposition  to  the  in- 
terests of  mankind.  They  are  upheld  in  the  sacred 
name  of  religion.  We  all  have  our  own  views  about 
religion,  and  we  mean  to  keep  them  without  in- 
fringement, or  being  forced  to  adopt  those  of  other 
men.  We  honour  all  days,  and  consider  what  is 
right  to  be  done  on  one  day  is  right  to  be  done  on 
another.  Men  should  be  left  to  the  exercise  of 
their  own  judgment  in  regard  to  the  way  they  spend 
their  time.  If  they  wish  pleasure,  let  them  have 
it;  if  they  wish  social  enjoyment  and  enlivening 
music,  let  them  have  it.  This' is  freedom."  This 
then  is  the  anti-Sabbath  men's  notion  of  liberty  as 
to  the  Sabbath.  Their  birth-right  in  enslaved  Ger- 
many becomes  freedom  to  set  our  laws  at  defiance 
and  distract  our  cities,  towns  and  country  with  fun 
and  frolic^  drinking,  singing,  theatres,  and  all  their 
pleasures  on  God's  holy  day.  This  is  freedom,  and 
this  is  the  claim  which  this  chapter  proposes  to  re- 
sist. 

NoAV,  at  the  very  outset,  we  concede  to  our  Ger- 
man freemen,  that  the  Sabbath  laws  are  a  restraint 
upon  the  conduct  of  men  and  women.  They  are 
hereby  restrained,  forbidden,  and  kept  back  from 
doing  their  own  j:)?easMre :  but  only  when  their 
pleasure  is  to  do  wrong,  in  violating  the  laws  of 
Christianity,  and  disturbing  the  public  peace,  and 
interfering  with  the  rights  and  privileges — the  reli- 
gious and  sacred  privileges  of  the  Christian  people 


A   SACRED    REST.  163 

around  them.  If  mere  restraint  upon  conduct  is  an 
infringement  on  your  sacred  liberties,  we  plead  guilty. 
Very  many  of  our  laws  are  designed  and  well 
adapted  to  operate  restraint,  ex.  gr.  We  have  a 
law  which  restrains  a  magistrate  from  forcing,  or 
permitting  a  man  to  swear  by  Almighty  God,  that 
he  will  tell  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing 
but  the  truth,  and  that  as  he  shall  answer  to  God 
in  the  great  day;  who  does  not  believe  there  is  any 
Almighty  God — a  God  of  truth;  and  any  great 
day  of  judgment ;  or  who  does  not  believe  he  him- 
self has  a  rational  soul,  that  shall  survive  the  body 
and  be  constrained  to  give  an  account  of  himself  to 
God.  We  have  a  law  that  restrains  liberty  to  such 
an  extent,  that  a  man  who  swears  falsely  or  pro- 
fanely shall  be  fined  or  imprisoned :  another  law  we 
have,  which  sends  a  man  to  the  penitentiary  and  im- 
mures him  for  years,  thus  cutting  ofi"  entirely  his  free- 
dom merely  because  he  wisJiedj^leaswe,  and  sought  it 
by  writing  two  words  on  a  bank  check.  Another  law 
we  have,  that  strangles  a  man  to  death  with  a  strong 
rope,  merely  because  he  ministered  a  little  dose  of 
medicine  to  a  patient :  another  law  we  have,  which 
arrests  a  freeman,  holds  him  in  durance  vile  and  then 
puts  six  bullets  through  his  brain,  simply  because 
he  pleased  to  enjoy  his  freedom  in  leaving  his  tent 
and  going  home  to  his  wife  and  children.  Oh  what 
horrible  infringements  on  "sacred  liberty"  are  per- 
petrated in  this  protestant  country  !     Why  we  hung 


164  THE  lord's  day. 

a  "  free  German"  in  Washington,  because  he  served 
his  employers  faithfullj. 

But  now,  the  terrible  aggravations  of  all  these 
and  innumerable  other  cases,  is,  that  they  are  not 
done  by  the  uneducated  and  lawless  rabble,  in  their 
senseless  clamours  for  freedom  and  lager  beer ;  but 
under  the  direct  sanction  of  law ;  and  by  the  orders 
and  action  of  the  officers  of  justice.  Are  then  law 
and  justice  antagonistic  to  liberty  ?  or  is  that  which 
"looseness,  irreligion,  and  atheism"  call  liberty, 
nothing  more  or  less  than  the  harlot,  which  infidel 
France,  under  the  schooling  of  Voltaire,  worshipped 
as  a  goddess  ? 

We  have  seen  abundantly,  that  the  Decalogue  is 
a  compend  of  moral  law,  given,  by  the  Author  of 
his  being  to  man  :  within  which  are  the  elements  of 
all  law ;  and  outside  of  which,  if  human  legislators 
pass,  they  become  tyrants,  not  governors.  We  have 
also  noted  the  fact,  that,  except  the  fifth  precept 
and  half  of  the  fourth,  these  organic  laws  of  God 
for  humanity,  come  to  us  in  the  form  of  negations : 
they  are  prohibitory :  they  restrain  action ;  they 
curtail  freedom;  they  infringe  the  "sacred  liberty" 
of  doing  as  we  please.  Can  it  be  possible  that 
God's  law  is  hostile  to  freedom  ?  This  can  be  an- 
swered only  after  ascertaining  what  free<lom  is :  and 
the  reader  already  perceives,  that  we  deny  liberty 
or  freedom  to  consist  in  doi^ig  as  we  please.  Men 
often  please  to  take  their  neighbour's  money ;  is 
this  liberty?  to  take  his  house,  his  fruits  and  grains; 


A   SACRED   REST.  165 

is  this  freedom  ?  Men  please  to  blaspheme  God  and 
curse  their  brethren ;  is  this  a  part  of  freedom  ?  to 
bow  down  and  worship  an  idol ;  to  offer  their  sons 
and  daughters  in  sacrifice  to  Moloch,  and  their  wid- 
ows to  Vishnu ;  is  this  liberty  ?  Did  the  agents  of 
the  East  India  Company  play  the  part  of  rational 
liberty,  in  protecting,  if  not  encouraging  the  Suttee? 
Here  is  a  fine  young  man  of  eighteen  or  twenty 
years,  capable  of  working  his  way  in  the  world,  but 
then  the  law  of  the  land  and  the  law  of  God  place 
him  in  subjection  to  his  father;  is  this  a  curtailment 
of  "sacred  liberty?"  He  can't  do  as  he  jDleases. 
A  German  resident  on  Walnut  Hills,  Cincinnati, 
told  me,  as  we  rode  by  a  field,  an  anecdote  of  a 
fellow-countryman  of  his,  who  went  into  the  field, 
dug  up  and  filled  his  basket  with  potatoes,  but  was 
detected;  upon  his  arrest,  he  replied,  in  justification 
of  himself  by  an  expression  of  surprise,  "Yel,  I 
tought  dis  was  a  free  country."  Oh,  no,  restraint  is 
not  a  curtailment  of  freedom,  unless  it  be  contrary 
to  the  Decalogue.  A  Jew  and  a  Turk,  whose  reli- 
gion permits  them  to  have  two  or  more  wives,  emi- 
grate to  the  United  States,  each  "wishing  pleasure" 
and  liberty,  such  as  they  had  in  Constantinople; 
must  we  concede  it  ?  If  our  laws  forbid  it,  they 
turn  upon  us,  with  fierce  vituperation ;  charging, 
that  America  is  a  tyrannical  government ;  more 
hostile  to  liberty  than  the  tyranny  of  the  Sultan. 
Mormonism  is  a  "free-love"  advocate;  must  this 
Christian  republic  abolish  its  Christian  laws,  in  order 


166  THE  lord's  day 

that  these  bulls  of  Bashan  may  enter  the  Canaan 
of  our  holy  land ;  and  therein  be  free  to  pollute 
the  morals  of  the  country  and  ultimately  to  subvert 
the  nation  by  their  corruptions  ?  No,  my  dear 
readers,  liberty  does  not  consist  in  man's  doing  as 
he  pleases  ;  but  in  pleasing  to  do  and  actually  doing 
right.  The  perfection  of  freedom  is  obedience  to 
God's  law.  The  devil's  maxim — ''Religion  has 
nothing  to  do  with  politics,"  will  speedily  destroy  any 
nation  that  adopts  it.  Every  precept  of  the  Deca- 
logue designs  to  restrain  action ;  and  the  more 
perfectly  a  man  feels  and  submits  to  this  restraint, 
the  nearer  does  he  approximate  perfect  liberty.  It 
is  resistance  to  law  that  constitutes  the  yoke  of 
bondage.  Not  one  precept  of  the  Ten  ever  galls 
the  neck  of  the  obedient  disciple  of  Christ.  But 
he  that  committeth  sin  is  the  servant  of  sin.  The 
victim  of  lager  beer  and  bad  whisky,  in  the  midst 
of  his  fun  and  frolic ;  his  Sunday  dancing  and  fid- 
dling, and  theatricals,  is  a  miserable  slave.  "  These 
are  wells  without  water;  clouds  that  are  carried 
with  a  tempest ;  to  whom  the  mist  of  darkness  is 
reserved  for  ever.  For  while  they  speak  great 
swelling  words  of  vanity,  they  allure  through  the 
lusts  of  the  flesh,  through  much  wantonness,  those 
who  were  clean  escaped  from  them  who  live  in  error. 
While  they  promise  them  liberty,  they  themselves 
are  the  servants  of  corruption,  for  of  whom  a  man 
is  overcome,  of  the  same  is  he  brought  in  bondage." 
On  the  contrary,  instead  of  rehgion  having  noth- 


A   SACKED    REST.  "     167 

ing  to  do  with  politics,  our  maxim  in  America  is, 
that  our  whole  political  institutions  are  based  and 
founded  on  the  Christian  religion.  It  is  the  platform 
of  our  law^s,  common  and  statute.  We  quote  the 
last  paragraph  of  the  masterly  article  above  referred 
to. 

"  The  same  answer  the  Christians  of  this  country 
give  all  classes  of  men,  who  demand  that  Christian- 
ity should  be  divorced  from  our  governments,  muni- 
cipal, state  and  national.  This  country  was  settled 
by  Protestant  Christians.  .  They  possessed  the  land. 
They  established  its  institutions.  They  formed 
themselves  into  towns,  states,  and  nation.  From 
the  nature  of  the  case,  regarding  the  Bible  as  the 
word  of  God  binding  the  conscience  of  every  man 
with  Divine  authority,  they  were  governed  by  it  in 
all  their  organizations,  whether  for  business,  or  civil 
policy.  Others  have  since  come  into  the  country 
by  thousands ;  some  Papists,  some  Jews,  some  infi- 
dels, some  atheists.  All  were  welcomed ;  all  are 
admitted  to  equal  rights  and  privileges.  All  are 
allowed  to  acquire  property,  to  vote  in  all  elections, 
made  eligible  to  all .  offices,  and  invested  with  an 
equal  interest  in  all  public  concerns.  All  are  al- 
lowed to  worship  as  they  please,  or  not  at  all  if 
they  please.  No  man  is  molested  for  his  religion 
or  for  his  want  of  religion.  No  man  is  required  to 
profess  any  particular  form  of  faith,  or  to  join  aiiy 
religious  association.  Is  not  this  liberty  enough? 
It   seems   not.     Our   '  Free    Germans,'  and  other 


168  THE  lord's  day 

anti-Sabbatarians  insist  upon  it,  that  we  must  turn 
infidels,  give  up  our  God,  our  Saviour,  and  our 
Bibles,  so  far  as  all  public  or  governmental  action  is 
concerned.  They  require  that  the  joint  stock  into 
which  they  have  been  received  as  partners,  and  in 
which  they  constitute  even  numerically  a  very  small 
minority,  should  be  conducted  according  to  their 
principles  and  not  according  to  ours.  They  demand, 
not  merely  that  they  may  be  allowed  to  disregard 
the  Sabbath,  but  that  the  public  business  must  go 
on  on  that  day ;  that  all  public  servants  must  be 
employed ;  all  public  property,  highways,  and  rail- 
roads, should  be  used.  They  say  we  must  not  pray 
in  our  legislative  bodies,  or  have  chaplains  in  our 
hospitals,  prisons,  navy,  or  army :  that  we  must 
not  introduce  the  Bible  into  our  public  schools,  or 
do  anything  in  a  public  capacity  which  implies  that 
we  are  Protestant  Christians.  These  men  do  not 
know  what  Protestant  Christians  are.  It  is  the 
characteristic  of  Protestants,  as  they  humbly  hope 
and  believe,  to  respect  the  rights  of  other  men,  and 
to  stand  up  for  their  own.  And,  therefore,  they 
say  to  all — infidels  and  atheists — to  all  who  demand 
that  the  Bible  shall  not  be  the  rule  of  action  for  us 
as  individuals,  and  as  a  government,  You  ask  what 
it  is  impossible  can  be  granted.  We  must  obey  God. 
We  must  carry  our  religion  into  our  work-shops,  our 
banking-houses,  our  municipal  and  other  govern- 
ments ;  and  if  you  cannot  live  with  Christians,  you 
must  go  elsewhere." 


A    SACRED    REST.  169 


,  CHAPTER    XX. 

THE    SABBATH — A   TYPE    OF   HEAVEN. 

All  that  is  painful  in  labour  is  the  result  of  sin : 
^vhen,  therefore,  sin,  as  to  its  guilt,  shall  have  been 
removed  by  the  blood  of  the  great  Atonement ;  as 
to  its  pollution  by  the  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
the  cause  being  taken  away,  the  effects  will  cease. 
Rest  follows.  Cessation  of  painful  exertion  is  gone 
for  ever.  When  Israel  escaped  from  the  land  of 
bondage  and  the  turmoil  and  harassments  of  the 
wilderness,  and  crossed  the  Jordan,  he  entered  into 
rest.  But  this  Sabbath  in  Canaan,  as  Paul  has 
shown,  is  a  figure  of  another  and  a  holier  rest  in 
the  gospel  state  of  the  Church :  and  still  farther, 
this  state,  with  all  its  enlargement  and  all  its  blessed 
comforts,  is  preparatory  and  typical  of  a  higher  and 
holier  Sabbath  beyond  the  Jordan  of  death.  There 
remaineth,  therefore,  a  Sabbatismos  for  the  people 
of  God. 

Among  the  deliverances  of  which  the  Sabbath 
here  is  typical,  is  removal  beyond  the  reach  of  per- 
secutions and  tribulations :  Seeing  it  is  a  righteous 
thing  with  God  to  recompense  tribulation  to  them 

15 


170  THE    lord's   day. 

that  trouble  joii ;  and  to  you  who  are  troubled,  rest 
with  us,  Avhen  the  Lord  Jesus  shall  be  revealed  from 
heaven  with  his  mighty  angels.  As  the  Chnstian 
Sabbath  separates  the  sacred  from  the  profane,  and 
sets  them  aside  for  a  time,  to  the  special  service  of 
their  Lord,  to  enjoy  his  presence  in  the  sanctuary, 
so  the  type  promises  and  portrays  an  everlasting 
separation  between  the  righteous  and  the  wicked ; 
the  holy  and  the  unholy. 

Deliverance  is  also  perfected  from  the  assaults  of 
foul  spirits  and  all  the  temptations  to  which  we  are 
here  exposed.  Far  away  from  this  happy  rest  are 
banished  for  ever  the  arch  fiend  and  all  his  company, 
and  are  never  more  permitted  to  disturb  the  quiet 
of  the  everlasting  Sabbath. 

But  exemptions  and  negations  constitute  a  very 
small  proportion  of  the  blessings  typified  by  the 
Christian  Sabbath.  Positive  blessedness,  inconceiv- 
ably great,  characterizes  the  happy  abode  on  high, 
in  those  many  mansions  of  our  Father's  house, 
which  the  Forerunner  has  gone  to  furnish  up  and 
prepare  for  us.  "  Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard, 
neither  have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man,  the 
things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love 
him."  "  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be; 
but  we  know  that  when  he  shall  appear  we  shall  be 
like  him,  for  we  shall  see  him  as  he  is." 

Undoubtedly  the  eternal  Sabbath,  like  its  type 
here,  will  be  a  day  of  holy  activities.  The  spirits 
of  the  redeemed,  and,  after  the  resurrection,  their 


A    SACRED    REST.  171 

entire  persons,  will  be  active  in  the  service  of  God ; 
and  that  increased,  as  the  purified  souls  and  the 
spiritualized  bodies,  have  increased  capacities  for 
heavenly  joys.  The  earthly  Sabbath  is  to  them  a 
delight ;  how  much  more  the  heavenly  ?  Here  they 
meet  and  recognize  each  other  as  fellow-heirs  of 
the  grace  of  life ;  they  take  sweet  counsel  and  go 
up  to  the  house  of  God,  and  sound  forth  the  praises 
of  redeeming  love ;  how  much  more  when  clogs  of 
clay  are  all  thrown  off  and  they  meet  and  recognize 
each  other  in  the  heavenly  Canaan  !  Oh,  how  they 
will  exult  in  the  high  glories  of  the  rapturous  hour 
when  sin  and  flesh  no  more  control  the  sacred  plea- 
sures of  the  soul ! 

Our  social  nature  will  receive  a  large  increase  to 
its  benevolent  affections.  We  shall  recognize  each 
other.  For  now  we  see  through  a  glass  darkly ; 
but  then,  face  to  face.  Now  we  know  in  part;  but 
then  shall  we  know  even  as  also  we  are  known. 
And  the  more  we  increase  in  the  activities  of  hea- 
venly love,  the  larger  expand  our  powers  for  drink- 
ing of  the  rivers  of  pleasure  which  ever  flow  at 
God's  right  hand.  The  imagery  used  to  convey  a 
general  idea  of  this  ever  active  Rest,  is  of  the  bold- 
est and  strongest  character.  Joy  resounds ;  golden 
harps  are  strung  to  sound  the  high  praises  of  re- 
deeming love.  Choirs  stand  in  bright  array  and 
rival  angelic  hosts  in  beauty  and  glory,  and  rise 
above  them  in  the  lofty  notes  of  thanksgiving  unto 
Him  that  loved  us  and  redeemed  us  unto  God  by 


172         THE  lord's  day  a  sacred  rest. 

his  blood.  In  these  holy  exercises  there  will  be  an 
ever  onward  movement.  It  is  not  conceivable  that 
such  employments  should  not  keep  in  perpetual  ac- 
tion the  law  of  progress  which  opens  up  a  bound- 
less advancement  in  holiness  and  perfection.  The 
path  of  the  just  is  as  the  shining  light  which  shineth 
more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day. 

"  Mid  the  chorus  of  the  skies. 

Mid  th'  angelic  lyres  above, 
Hark !  their  songs  melodious  rise, 

Songs  of  praise  to  Jesus'  love. 
Happy  spirits,  ye  are  fled 

Where  no  grief  can  entrance  find; 
Lulled  to  rest  the  aching  head. 

Soothed  the  anguish  of  the  mind.  ' 

"All  is  tranquil  and  serene. 

Calm  and  undisturbed  repose; 
There  no  cloud  can  intervene, 

There  no  angry  tempest  blows. 
Every  tear  is  wiped  away, 

Sighs  no  more  shall  heave  the  breast- 
Night  is  lost  in  endless  day, 

Sorrow,  in  eteuxal  rest." 


APPENDIX 


During  the  present  campaign  against  the  laws 
of  God  and  of  this  Commonwealth,  the  author 
threw  a  number  of  brief  articles  before  the  public. 
From  these  he  has  selected  the  following  for  preser- 
vation, as  likely  to  be  useful,  should  this  controversy 
last;  or  the  war  be  renewed  at  any  future  time. 

Philadelphia,  March  27th,  A.  D.  1806. 

A  PLEA  FOR  OPPRESSED  CARMEN. 

To  THE  Editor  of  the  Evening  Telegraph — 
Sir: — The  lavfs  of  God  and  of  Pennsylvania  pro- 
tect the  working-man.  Capital  shall  not  oppress 
labour.  Their  relations  I  shall,  God  willing,  en- 
deavour to  point  out  in  a  future  paper ;  at  present 
let  us  look  at  the  cruelty  exercised  over  conductors 
and  drivers.  Seventeen  hours  a  day  they  are  re- 
quired to  labour.  Seven  hours  only  are  left  for  the 
repose  and  sleep,  without  which  "tired  nature"  has 
no  restorer.  Car  riders,  and  car  company  presi- 
dents, and  car-stock  owners,  come  up  and  look  this 
question  in  the  face.     Is  it  right  ?     Is  it  reasonable 

15  *  *  173 


174  APPENDIX. 

and  just  to  force  these  men  under  such  a  yoke  of 
bondage  ? 

In  the  olden  time,  in  Jeif.  Davis'  own  State,  a 
slave  was  tasked  to  pick — that  is,  to  gather  off  the 
stalks  in  the  field,  twenty-five  pounds  of  cotton  per 
day.  Whether  this  rule  was  universal  I  cannot 
say;  but  "^^ Uncle  Tom's  Cabin"  shows  the  slaves 
were  tasked  by  quantity.  I  know  that  in  Missis- 
sippi twenty-five  pounds  was  the  rule  on  some  plan- 
tations, and  that  on  some  exciting  occasions,  and 
when  time  for  fun  in  the  afternoon  was  desired, 
some  would  bring  in  their  twenty-five  pound  basket 
before  twelve  o'clock.  And  we  people  of  Philadel- 
phia exact  seventeen  hours  ofi"  our  car-men. 

In  Israel  of  old,  Isaiah  (Ivii.  3)  reproves  the  peo- 
ple for  this  kind  of  oppression.  "Behold,  in  the 
day  of  your  fast  ye  find  pleasure,  and  exact  all  ^^our 
labour."  If  it  was  a  sin,  deserving  the  prophet's 
reprobation  and  God's  wrath  to  exact  all  labours 
ofi"  the  oppressed  people,  can  it  be  a  duty  in  us  ? 
^'For  among  my  people  are  found  ivicked  men; 
they  lay  wait  as  he  that  setteth  snares;  they  set  a 
trap,  they  catch  men ;  are  become  great,  and  waxen 
rich.  They  are  waxen  fat,  they  shine;  yea,  they 
overpass  the  deeds  of  the  wicked;  they  judge  not 
the  cause,  the  cause  of  the  fatherless,  yet  they  pros- 
per; and  the  riglit  of  the  needy  do  they  not  judge. 
Shall  I  not  visit  for  these  tilings?  saith  the  Lord  : 
shall  not  my  soul  be  avenged  on  such  a  nation  as 
this  ?" — Jer.  v. 


APPENDIX.  175 

Let  us  ask  ourselves,  are  we  not  verily  guilty 
concerning  our  brethren?  Are  Tve  not  setting 
snares?  Having  waxen  rich,  have  we  not  thrown 
our  surplus  cash  into  a"  joint-stock  concern  to  buy 
traps  and  catch  men?  Seventeen  hours  a  day  for 
freemen,  in  free  Pennsylvania!!  Tell  it  not  in 
Gath — publish  it  not  in  the  streets  of  Charleston, 
lest  the  daughters  of  the  slaveholders  rejoice,  lest 
the  sons  of  the  aristocracy  be  glad.  No,  my  friend, 
this  is  cruelty,  this  is  oppression. 

What  time  have  these  "poor  men" — to  use  the 
Press'  phraseology — to  rest?  How  long  can  the 
conductor  sit  down  by  his  own  fireside,  with  a  little 
prattler  on  each  knee,  and  a  lovely  wife,  bustling 
about,  preparing  a  midnight  supper  for  a  husband 
worn  down  and  exhausted  by  seventeen  weary  hours, 
all  spent  standing  on  his  weary  limbs?  Ah!  no; 
the  lovely  little  ones  have  been  laid  up  already  four 
or  five  hours  in  the  humble  bed,  with  light  covering, 
I  ween,  for  men  that  work  seventeen  hours  must  be 
forced,  like  the  poor  men  of  the  Press,  by  hard 
necessity.  And  the  poor  wife  has  been  sitting  or 
stirring  about  for  four  or  five  hours.  "  Have  you 
no  pity  on  these  poor  men,"  and  I  may  add  to  this 
pathetic  language  of  Colonel  Forney — these  poor 
women  ?  Are  not  the  stockholders  responsible  for 
these  cruelties?  But  I  must  reserve  this  topic  for 
another  occasion. 

Now,  look  at  the  aggravating  circumstances  of 
this  oppression.     At  this  very  time  a  mighty  effort 


176  APPENDIX. 

is  being  made  to  reduce  the  day's  labour  to  eiglit 
hours.  And  yet  here,  in  the  very  midst  of  this  re- 
form, the  object  of  which  is  to  give  a  man  a  little 
alleviation  from  his  burden,  another  "great  reform" 
is  advocated  by  a  leading  public  journal  in  free 
Pennsylvania,  which  has  for  its  declared  object  the 
additional  burden  of  Sunday  labour  upon  the  shoul- 
ders of  these  oppressed  men  !  For  why  ?  That  the 
poor  men  of  the  Press  may  be  relieved  from  the 
fearful,  and  to  them — exhausted  as  they  are  by 
Saturday  night  and  Sunday  labour  —  unbearable 
burden  of  "walking  all  the  Avay  to  their  work  in  the 
day-time'and  back  at  night."  This  is  what  I  have 
called  "Skinning  Peter  to  make  brogans  for  Paul." 
One  party  of  free  men  are  crushed  down  under  the 
Press,  and  lest  they  should  be  worked  to  death  be- 
fore all  the  marrow  is  sucked  out  of  their  bones, 
another  class  of  Pennsylvania  freemen,  who  work 
seventeen  hours  per  day  all  the  week,  must  be  forced 
to  work  on  Sunday  too !  Where,  in  this  sin-cursed 
world,  can  you  find  such  oppression?  But  we  shall 
be  told  they  do  it  voluntarily.  Do  they,  really  ? 
Then  they  should  be  painted  black  and  sent  to  Cuba. 
I'll  say  something  about  this  voluntary  slavery  at 
another  time^ 


APPENDIX.  177 


THE  FREEDOM  OF  CONDUCTORS  AND  DRIVERS 
VINDICATED. 

To  THE  Editor  oe  The  Evening  Telegraph — 
Sir : — We  may  be  told,  that  the  seventeen-hour-a- 
daj  labourers  are  willing  thus  to  work :  yes,  they 
are  willing  to  do  the  same  on  Sunday  !  Now,  a 
double  meanincr  in  words  is  a  orreat  occasion  for  de- 
ception  and  fallacy.  There  is  a  sense  in  which  this 
is  true.  The  proverb,  "root,  pig,  or  die,"  leaves 
grumphy  a  choice  of  evils — work  or  death :  and  his 
pigship  chooses  to  root  as  the  least  of  two  evils — he 
is  a  voluntary  rooter.  Now  I  affirm  that  this  is  the 
only  sense  in  Avhich  a  free-born  American  is,  or  can 
be  made,  willing  to  Avork  seventeen  hours  per  day, 
for  seven  days  in  the  week.  No  man,  that  has  a 
soul  in  him,  can  bring  that  soul  up  to  the  humiliation 
of  such  voluntary  bondage.  A  dire  necessity  must 
first  be  laid  upon  him.  The  men  who  have  him  in 
their  trap,  in  great  condescension  and  love,  say  to 
him: — "Mike,  w^e  are  going  to  run  our  cars  on  Sun- 
day, and  our  men  and  horses  must  buckle  to  and 
drive  ahead.  How  do  you  like  it,  Mike?"  "Well, 
sir,  I  think  seventeen  hours  a  day  for  six  days  of 
the  week  is  about  tight  enough  on  a  poor  fellow. 
Ye  see,  sir,  I've  no  time  to  sit  and  nurse  Pussy  on 
my  knee  and  amuse  myself  looking  at  Jemmy  and 
Sue  playing  with  the  little  dog  about  the  hearth. 
Sir,  I  think  I'd  like  to  have  Sunday  clear.  It's  the 
only  time  I  enjoy  the  home  of  my  wife  and  chil- 


178  APPENDIX. 

dren."  "That's  true,  Mike;  but  we'll  of  course 
increase  your  wages  a  little."  "  Well,  sir,  the  Lord 
knows  we  poor  drivers  and  conductors  have  hard 
work  to  get  along  on  our  present  wages ;  everything 
is  so  dear."  "  Very  true,  Mike,  but  then  you  know 
*half  a  loaf  is  better  than  no  bread.'"  "That's 
true,  too,  Mr.  Railroad  President !  but  then,  a  whole 
loaf,  and  a  little  beef  and  potatoes  is  better  still." 
"Well,  turn  in,  Mike,  and  vrork  seventeen  hours  on 
Sunday,  and  the  increase  of  your  wages  will  buy  the 
potatoes,  at  any  rate."  "  Ah,  but  Mr.  President — 
then  I'll  have  to  leave  poor  little  Pussy,  and  Jemmy, 
and  Sue,  and  their  dear  mother  all  day ;  and  I'll 
become  a  stranger  in  my  own  house ;  my  little 
darlings  will  soon  not  know  their  daddy.  Please 
excuse  me  then  from  the  Sunday."  "Well,  Mike, 
you've  been  a  faithful  driver,  and  I  thought  I  would 
make  you  a  fair  offer,  full  employment,  and  living 
wages.  Now  I  want  you  fairly  to  understand  your 
position.  You  see  the  cars  must  run  of  a  Sunday, 
and  we  must  have  drivers — it's  absolutely  necessary ; 
and  you  know  necessity  has  no  law.  So,  Mike,  if 
you  won't  another  will,  and  we  will  have  to  part. 
If  you  won't  work  for  us  on  Sunday,  you  shan't 
work  for  us  on  week  days.  So  good-bye,  Mike." 
"  Oh !  Mr.  President,  stop  a  little.  There  is  another 
difficulty  in  my  way  that  maybe  you  will  think  about 
it.  Mary  and  I  were  brought  up  in  praying,  and 
Sabbath-keeping,  and  church-going  families.  We 
both  think  it  is  wrong  to  work  on  Sunday.     My 


APPENDIX.  179 

father  and  grandfather,  as  far  back  as  I  can  get  any 
knowledge  of  them,  were  Sabbath-keepers,  and  al- 
ways held  the  Ten  Commandments  to  be  a  summary 
of  the  moral  law,  and  binding  upon  the  consciences 
of  all  men.  I  and  my  dear  wife  may  be  mistaken, 
but  so  it  is,  we  conscientiously  believe  it  is  wrong. 

"  '  "We  must  not  work,  we  must  not  play, 
Because  it  is  the  Sabbatli  day.' 

This  we  teach  our  children,  and  we  still  think  it  is 
right.  Now,  Mr.  President,  must  we  be  cut  off  from 
our  employment  and  our  bread,  and  turned  off  the 
cars  all  the  week,  just  because  we  want  to  worship 
the  God  of  our  fathers  according  to  the  dictates  of 
our  own  consciences,  as  the  constitution  of  the  state, 
and  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  of  God  say  we  ought? 
Does  it  not  seem  hard  ?  I  am  willing  to  drive  till 
twelve  o'clock  on  Saturday  night,  and  to  start  at 
four  on  Monday  morning*  but,  sir,  if  I  must  pollute 
my  conscience  by  disobeymg  God's  law,  the  law  of 
my  native  Pennsylvania,  and  the  law  of  my  church; 
or  leave  your  company's  employment,  why,  then  my 
choice  is,  to  keep  a  good  conscience  and  trust  to 
God  for  bread." 

"  Well,  Mike,  it  is  hard.  I  do  pity  you.  But, 
you  know,  corporations  have  no  souls,  and  I  can't 
help  it.  I  am  but  an  agent  for  others,  and  must 
submit  to  my  masters.  So,  good-bye,  poor  Mike." 
"  Just  a  minute  more,  Mr.  Railroad  President,  if 
you  please.  If  corporations  have  no  souls,  can  they 
go  to  heaven,  or  to  the  other  place  ?     And  if  a  just 


180  APPENDIX. 

God  seizes  upon  the  corporation,  and  administers 
justice  according  to  truth  for  this  grievous  sin  of 
persecuting  all  conscientious  Sabbath-keepers  out 
from  their  employment,  how  wiYi  the  individuals  who 
compose  the  corporation  fare  at  the  same  righteous 
bar  ?  Can  the  whole  be  put  under  arrest,  and  yet 
all  the  parts  of  that  whole  escape  ?  Oh  !  sir,  bear 
in  mind  that  individual  responsibility  can  never  be 
merged  in  social  responsibility.  If  your  corporation 
pushes  off  all  men  who  love  God  and  his  holy  day, 
and  thus  persecute  us  in  violation  of  law,  can  the 
individuals  who  compose  it  wash  their  hands  of  it, 
and  say,  I  am  clean — this  sin  is  none  of  mine  ?  Why 
sir,  God's  law  protects  your  horses,  and  if  you  run 
them  seven  days  in  the  week,  you  will  kill  them  as 
you  are  killing  us.  Farewell.  God  bless  the  Sab- 
bath-breakers with  a  better  mind." 


CAPITAL  AND  LABOUR. 

These  are  man  and  wife :  their  combination  is 
necessary  to  production.  Capital  is  all  the  produc- 
tion of  labour.  All  values  result  from  labour — of 
the  hand  and  the  head.  Even  land  has  no  value 
but  as  it  results  from  labour.  Muscle,  bone,  and 
brain  are  the  trinity  which  created,  and  continue  to 
create,  the  world  of  capital,  over  which  Plutus  reigns. 
The  adjustment  of  a  dispute  between  man  and  wife 


APPENDIX.  181 

is  one  of  the  most  diflScult  questions  in  practical 
morals.  Milton,  one  of  The  Press'  witnesses  for 
Sunday  labour,  advocates  separation  of  married 
persons,  because  of  unhappy  diversities  of  temper 
and  consequent  quarrels.  He  gives  twelve  reasons, 
or  arguments  for  his  opinion.  "  No  ordinance,  hu- 
man or  from  Heaven,  can  bind  against  the  good  of 
man."  This  is  the  same  man  who  wrote  "Para- 
dise lost!"  Alas,  how  fallen  !  But  to  our  topic. 
Quarrels  between  capital  and  labour  are,  like  all 
wars,  unprofitable  to  mankind :  they  stop  produc- 
tion and  tend  towards  poverty.  And  yet,  as  in 
family  disputes,  such  quarrels  often  occur.  Strikes 
for  higher  wages  is  a  European  fashion,  which  re- 
formers are  striving  to  make  fashionable  in  America. 
This  middle  ground,  between  morals  and  political 
economy,  is  beset  with  thorns  and  briers ;  rocks, 
hills,  and  plains ;  peat-mosses,  moors,  and  serbonian 
bogs.  And  yet  it  must  be  traversed.  The  question 
about  an  equitable  division  of  p7^oducts,  between 
capital  and  labour,  is  one  which  ever  and  anon  must 
come  up,  and  cannot  possibly  be  ignored.  The 
world's  history  shows  that,  in  this  everlasting  con- 
troversy, intellect  comes  out  victor.  The  shrewd 
and  cunning,  the  long  heads,  are  too  much  for  the 
round-heads — mind  predominates  over  matter,  head- 
work  over  hand-work.  The  lion's  share  accumu- 
lates, and  his  roar  terrifies  into  submission ;  labour 
trembles  and  crouches  before  capital;  the  fecund 
wife  cowers   in  the  presence  of  the  strong-armed 

16 


182  APPENDIX. 

and  clearer-headed   husband.     These  things  meet 
our  eye  everywhere. 

Sunday  printing  and  Sunday  cars  are  merely  ex- 
amples of  the  triumph  of  capital  over  labour.  Such 
triumphs  cover  the  land  and  the  world,  and  all  ages. 
"The  poor  ye  have  always  wdth  you."  They  are 
results  of  sin,  in  the  curse  it  brought  with  it :  "  In 
the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread  till  thou 
return  unto  the  ground."  This  is  man's  doom  as  a 
sinner ;  and  happy  will  it  be  for  him  if  the  labour- 
ing man,  as  he  feels  the  sweat  trickling  down  his 
face,  can  say  to  himself,  "  These  briny  drops  are 
God's  allotment  for  my  sin,  and  there  is  no  sove- 
reign remedy  for  them  but  in  the  crimson  drops 
which  oozed  out  in  Gethsemane  and  trickled  down 
from  Calvary's  cross."  These  take  away  the  curse 
out  of  labour,  and  convert  even  weary  poverty  into 
joy  and  peace.  To  these  we  commend  the  oppressed 
labourer.  But  whilst  he  ought  to  submit  peacefully 
even  to  seventeen  hours  per  day — but  never  on  Sun- 
day— he  may  and  he  ought  to  use  all  lawful  means 
to  procure  a  more  equitable  division  of  products. 
Among  these  lawful  means  are  not  strikes  and  vio- 
lence. This  is  European ;  it  implies  despotic  gov- 
ernment ;  it  presupposes  the  absence  of  civil  rights 
and  the  ballot-box.  God  has  provided  a  rational 
remedy.  He  has  thrown  the  protection  of  law  over 
labour.  He  furnished  a  prophylactic  remedy  in  the 
Sabbatic  law,  and  this  even  before  labour  was  made 
a  curse.      Under  this   labour   has   its  protection. 


APPENDIX.  183 

Under  this  John  Quincy  Adams  threw  himself  for 
protection.  When  the  House  of  Representatives 
were  about  to  hold  a  Sunday  session,  rising  in  the 
sublime  dignity  of  a  man  conscious  of  freedom  and 
of  freemen's  rights,  he  exclaimed,  "  This  House 
HAS  NO  Power  to  compel  me  to  stay  here  on 
THE  Sabbath  day."  Let  the  down-trodden  carmen 
and  printers  and  •  all  other  oppressed  workers  arise 
to  this  heroic  sentiment.  Let  them  assert  it  every- 
where. Let  them  carry  it  to  the  ballot-box,  and 
all  the  world  shall  know  that  American  freemen 
cannot  be  reduced  to  the  condition  of  French  or 
Italian  or  Russian  serfs. 


[From  the  Presbyterian,  Jan.  13,  1866.] 

DE  MORTUIS,  NIL   NISI  VERITAS. 

VINDICATION  OF  LUTHER. 

Messrs.  Editors  : — Living  very  much  retired, 
I  do  not  know  how  the  question  of  the  violation  of 
the  law  of  God — the  Sabbath  law,  which  is  the  first 
he  ever  enacted  for  man — has  been  of  late  brought 
before  the  public.  I  have  not  seen  the  Philadelphia 
press  to  any  extent,  but  have  been  told  that  The 
Press  is  the  leading,  if  not  the  only  one  in  this  as- 
sault on  the  laws  of  this  Commonwealth,  which  have 
stood,  some  of  them,  one  hundred  and  sixty  years. 


184  APPENDIX. 

And  yet  the  proprietor  has  the  courage  (shall  I  call 
it  ?)  to  affirm,  in  his  letter  to  a  committee  of  Meth- 
odist brethren,  in  his  issue  of  25th  December,  thus : 
"This  controversy  is  of  your  own  seeking" — and 
"  I  will  show  to  the  community  before  which  you 
have  so  rudely  dragged  me,"  etc.  How  far  the 
editor  had  carried  his  war  upon  the  laws  of  God 
and  the  Commonwealth  before  these  brethren  called 
upon  him  in  private,  I  am  not  aware ;  and  what 
they  have  said  or  written  in  reply  to  his  three  long 
columns  as  above,  I  am  also  ignorant.  But  I  sup- 
pose it  was  their  duty,  and  one  easily  accomplished, 
to  expose  his  plausible,  yet  flims}^  arguments.  This, 
Messrs.  Editors,  is  not  what  is  proposed  in  this  pa- 
per. I  leave  that  work  in  the  able  hands  of  the 
committee,  and  simply  proceed  to  expose  the  unfair- 
ness of  the  editor's  assault  upon  the  venerable  Re- 
formers, whom  b'^  conscripts  into  the  army  he  is 
levying  against  the  Sabbath  and  the  clergy  of  Phil- 
adelphia. To  vindicate  the  dead,  and  the  truth  they 
taught,  is  my  single  object.  The  editor  quotes 
Martin  Luther,  saying :  "As  for  the  Sabbath,  or 
Sunday,  there  is  no  necessity  for  its  observance, 
and  if  we  do  so,  the  reason  ought  to  be,  not  because 
Moses  commanded  it,  but  because  nature  likewise 
teaches  us  to  give  ourselves,  from  time  to  time,  a 
day  of  rest,  in  order  that  man  and  beast  may  re- 
cruit their  strength,  and  that  we  may  go  and  hear 
the  word  of  God  preached.  Keep  the  Sabbath  holy 
for  its  use  both  to  body  and  mind ;  but  if  anywhere 


APPENDIX.  185 

the  day  is  made  holy  for  the  mere  day's  sake;  if 
anywhere  any  one  sets  up  its  observance  on  the 
Jewish  foundation — then  I  order  you  to  "work  on  it, 
to  ride  on  it,  to  dance  on  it,  to  feast  on  it,  to  do 
anything  that  shall  remove  this  encroachment  on 
Christian  spirit  and  liberty." 

And  this  is  quoted  in  the  nineteenth  century  to 
sustain  a  breach  of  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania  and 
of  God,  by  his  agents  in  his  office  and  on  the  streets ! 
Now,  it  would  induce  to  confidence  if  he  had  given 
reference  to  chapter  and  verse  in  Luther's  works. 
How  can  I  find  this  paragraph  in  the  fifteen  or 
twenty  volumes  of  Luther's  works,  in  order  to  scru- 
tinize the  correctness  of  the  translation,  and  exam- 
ine the  passage  in  its  connection?  But  as  he  states 
it,  how  does  it  make  in  favour  of  his  Sunday  work 
or  Sunday  cars? 

1.  Do  the  committee  against  whom  he  pours  out 
his  wrath — does  any  one  of  the  one  hundred  and 
forty-three  clergymen  who  signed  the  letter  to  the 
Mayor  against  Sabbath-breaking,  advocate  "the  as- 
cetic and  gloomy  observance  of  the  first  day  of  the 
week,"  as  the  editor  of  The  Press  asserts? 

2.  Does  any  one  of  them  advocate  the  sacred 
observance  of  the  day  "because  Moses  commanded 
it?"  Surely  the  editor  knows  better.  Surely  he 
knows  we  observe  the  sacred  rest  day  because  God 
commanded  it  in  the  voice  of  thunder  from  Sinai, 
and  wrote  it  with  his  own  finger  on  the  table  of 
stone.     Is  it  possible  this  intelligent  gentleman  does 

16  * 


186  APPENDIX. 

not  know  that  this  fourth  precept  of  the  moral  law 
does  not  bless  the  seventh  day  and  hallow  it,  but 
the  Sabbath  day.  Now  Sabbath  means  simply  rest; 
and  the  word  is  never  applied  in  the  Bible  but  to  a 
sacred,  religious  rest,  and  the  phrase  seventh  day  is 
never,  in  the  book  of  God,  applied  and  used  as  the 
name  of  the  holy  rest  commanded  from  Sinai. 

3.  Does  the  editor  mean  to  assert — he  manifestly 
does  by  implication  assert — but  does  he  mean  to  as- 
sert that  the  clergy  and  Christian  people  of  Penn- 
sylvania "  set  up  its  observance  on  the  Jewish  foun- 
dation?" Most  assuredly,  no  man  can  have  become 
a  man  in  this  State,  and  not  know  that  it  is  a 
Christian  commonwealth,  and  never  professed  to 
build  "on  the  Jewish  foundation;"  and  yet  it  affords 
to  its  Jewish  citizens  all  civil  and  religious  rights, 
as  Justice  Bell,  in  Specht  versus  Commonwealth, 
has  most  conclusively  shown. 

4.  What,  then,  does  Luther  mean?  Exactly 
what  all  evangelical  men,  clergy,  and  laity  mean, 
that  the  Sabbaths  of  the  Jews,  (of  which  five  are 
mentioned  in  Leviticus  xxiii.,  which  are  called  Sab- 
baths, and  yet  distinct  from  the  regular  hebdomadal 
rest,)  and  even  the  Jewish  appendages  to  this  origi- 
nal Sabbatism  are  not  binding  on  us  now,  but  this 
first  law  of  creation  stands  clear  of  all  these 
Levitical  sufiixes;  just  as  the  law  of  marriage  and 
the  law  of  superiors  and  inferiors — the  Seventh  and 
the  Fifth  Commandments  had  appended  to  them 
the  penalty  of  death  for  their  violation.     Luther 


APPENDIX.  187 

vrould  say  the  same  of  both  these  commands  if  you 
attempt  to  eDforce  them  "on  the  Jewish  founda- 
tion." So  on  the  first  table  beside  the  Sabbath  law 
is  the  Third  Commandment,  which  has  appended  to 
it  in  Leviticus  xxiv.  16,  the  death  penalty.  In 
abandoning  -'this  Jewish  foundation,"  do  we  aban- 
don the  moral  law  of  the  Third  Commandment? 
When  the  clergy  of  Pennsylvania  take  this  ground, 
it  will  be  time  enough  for  the  editor  of  the  Press  to 
work  and  to  ride,  to  dance  and  feast  on  this  holy 
day,  the  very  end  to  which  his  doctrine  inevitably 
leads.  He  has  been  entangled  by  the  logical  trap 
of  a  conditional  proposition.  Luther  says,  "  If  we 
do  so" — "if  any  where."  And  it  is  convenient 
for  my  anti-Sabbath  friend  to  drop  the  if.  But  now, 
you  may  get  an  absolute  proposition  out  of  a  con- 
ditional one,  but  only  if  you  remove  the  if.  If  the 
editor  of  the  Press  succeeds — if  Sunday  secular 
papers  are  cried  through  our  streets  by  ragged  run- 
ners and  on  Sunday  cars,  Christianity  will  be 
doomed  to  a  terrible  check.  Now,  if  the  editor 
drops  the  if  out  of  this  proposition,  then  he  may 
assert  that  Theophilus  means  that  Christianity  will 
shortly  be  doomed  to  a  terrible  check.  Would  this 
be  true  ?  No  more  true  than  that  Luther  opposed 
the  Sabbath. 

5.  But  the  contrary  is  his  doctrine  in  this  very 
passage,  "  Keep  the  Sabbath  holy,  for  its  use  both 
to  body  and  mind  " — the  things  which  he  says  there 
is  no   necessity  for  its  observance  are  these  very 


188  APPENDIX. 

Jewish  appendages ;  and  he  goes  on  to  prove  the 
necessity  for  its  Christian  observance,  because  the 
laws  of  nature — the  laws  which  God  has  given  to 
our  physical  nature  require  cessation  from  labour, 
require  just  such  a  moral  law  as  he  wrote  on  the 
table  of  stone. 

6.  But  how  does  Luther  say  the  Sabbath  is  to  be 
spent?  In  printing  political,  secular,  advertising 
matter,  and  hawking  the  sheets  through  the  streets, 
and  forcing  conductors  and  car-drivers,  who  labour 
seventeen  hours  per  day  for  six  days  of  the  seven, 
to  work  also  on  the  day  God  has  commanded  to  be 
observed  as  a  day  of  sacred  rest?  "Have  you  no 
pity,  no  charity  for  these  poor  men  thus  forced" — 
as  you  say  your  men  are  forced,  but  by  yourself, 
sir  ?  Does  Luther  say  the  Sabbath  is  for  cars  to 
run,  that  men  may  go  away  from  God's  sanctuary, 
and  hold  "  intercourse  with  nature  and  her  ten 
thousand  blessings,"  as  you  say?  Oh,  no.  Luther 
speaks  not  in  the  language  of  infidelity.  He  says 
— "  That  man  and  beast  may  recruit  their  strength, 
and  that  we  may  go  and  hear  the  word  of  God 
preached."  Not  rush  out  to  the  country,  and  wor- 
ship nature  in  the  grog-shops  at  the  shanties  by  the 
way,  and  furnish  employment  for  the  policemen  and 
magistrates. 

7.  Luther  (quoted  in  Fairbairn,  vol.  ii.,  p.  467,) 
says : — "  It  is  good,  and  even  necessary,  that  men 
should  keep  a  particular  day  in  the  week,  on  which 
they  are  to  meditate,  hear,  and  learn — for  all  can- 


APPENDIX.  189 

not  command  every  day ;  and  nature  also  requires 
that  one  day  in  the  week  should  be  kept  quiet,  with- 
out labour  for  either  man  or  beast."  And  as  quoted 
in  GilfiUan,  Luther  (vol.  v.,  p.  23,)  says: — "Nay, 
after  the  fall,  God  sanctified  that  seventh  day ;  in 
other  words,  he  instructed  his  family  on  that  day, 
as  is  testified  by  the  ofi'erings  of  his  sons,  Cain  and 
Abel."  "Wherefore  the  Sabbath  was,  from  the 
beginning  of  the  world,  set  apart  to  divine  worship." 


VINDICATION  OF  CALVIN. 

Messrs.  Editors  : — The  Press  calls  upon  the 
great  Swiss  reformer  to  aid  it  in  its  assaults  upon 
the  laws  of  the  state,  the  law  of  God,  and  the 
clergy.  Let  us  see  what  Calvin  teaches  in  his  ex- 
position of  the  Fourth  Commandment.  Insti.  B. 
IL,  chap.  viii.  sec.  xxix.  "  When  the  Lord  means 
to  intimate,  in  the  prophets,  that  religion  is  totally 
subverted,  he  complains  that  his  Sabbaths  are  pol- 
luted, violated,  neglected,  and  profaned ;  as  though, 
in  case  of  that  duty  beiug  neglected,  there  remained 
no  other  way  in  which  he  could  be  honoured.*  On 
the  other  hand,  he  notices  the  observance  of  it  with 
singular  encomiums."  Then  after  citing  Jer.  xvii. 
21,  22,  27 ;  Isaiah  Ivi.  2 ;  Neh.  ix.  14,  he  remarks, 

*  Here  he  refers  to  Num.  xiii.  22  ,•    Ezek.  xxii.  12,  and  xxii.  8, 
xxiii.  38. 


190  APPENDIX. 

"  We  see  the  singular  estimation  in  which  it  is  held 
above  all  the  commandments  of  the  law." 

After  striking  at  the  superstitious  observances  of 
the  Jews  on  the  seventh  day,  he  says,  "  Christians, 
therefore,  ought  to  depart  from  all  superstitious  ob- 
servance of  days."  This  is  the  sense  in  which  he 
understands  the  abrogation;  it  is  the  seventh,  as 
slavishly  and  superstitiously  kept  by  Jews ;  this  he 
condemns,  and  proceeds  in  sec.  xxxii.  "  Though  the 
Sabbath  is  abrogated,  yet  it  is  still  customary  among 
us  to  assemble  on  stated  days  for  hearing  the  word, 
for  breaking  the  mystic  bread,  and  for  public 
prayers ;  and  also  to  allow  servants  and  labourers  a 
remission  from  their  labour."  Sec.  xxxiii.  "I  am 
obliged  to  be  rather  more  diffuse  on  this  point,  be- 
cause, in  the  present  age,  some  unquiet  spirits  (and 
they  are  not  all  dead)  have  been  raising  noisy  con- 
tentions respecting  the  Lord's  day.  They  complain 
that  Christians  are  tinctured  with  Judaism,  because 
they  retain  any  observance  of  days.  But  I  reply, 
that  the  Lord's  day  is  not  observed  by  us  upon  the 
principles  of  Judaism."  He  defends  and  explains 
the  change  of  day :  ''  Now,  whereas,  it  was  expedi- 
ent, for  the  destruction  of  superstition,  that  the  day 
which  the  Jews  kept  holy  was  abolished ;  and,  it 
being  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  decorum, 
order,  and  peace  in  the  Christian  church,  another 
day  was  appointed  for  the  same  use."  In  sec.  xxxiv. 
he  refutes  this  figment,  and  points  again  to  the  true 
Sabbath  of  the  Lord,  on  which   a   Christian  man 


APPENDIX.  191 

should  ^'  observe  the  legitimate  order  of  the  church, 
appointed  for  the  hearing  of  the  word,  for  the 
administration  of  the  sacraments,  and  for  public 
prayer ;  and  we  should  not  unkindly  oppress  those 
who  are  subject  to  us.  Thus  vanish  all  the  dreams 
of  false  prophets,  who,  in  past  ages,  have  infected 
the  people  with  a  Jewish  notion,  affirming  but  the 
ceremonial  part  of  this  commandment,  which,  ac- 
cording to  them,  is  the  appointment  of  the  seventh 
day,  has  been  abrogated,  but  that  the  moral  part  of 
it,  that  is  the  observance  of  one  day  in  seven,  still 
remains.  But  this  is  only  changing  the  day  in  con- 
tempt of  the  Jews,  while  they  retain  the  same 
opinion  of  the  holiness  of  the  day ;  for  on  this 
principle  the  same  mysterious  signification  would 
still  be  attributed  to  particular  days,  which  they  for- 
merly retained  among  the  Jews.  And,  indeed,  we 
see  what  advantages  have  arisen  from  such  a  senti- 
ment. For  those  who  adhere  to  it,  far  exceed  the 
Jews,  in  a  gross,  carnal,  and  superstitious  observance 
of  the  Sabbath." 

This  is  the  passage  which  the  Press  quotes,  thus  : 
^'  The  false  prophets  have  said  that  nothing  was  ab- 
rogated, but  what  was  ceremonial  in  the  command- 
ment; but  the  moral  part  remains,  to  wit:  the 
observance  of  one  day  in  seven.  This  is  nothing 
else  than  to  insult  the  Jews,  by  changing  the  day,  and 
yet  mentally  attributing  to  it  the  same  sanctity, 
thus  retaining  the  same  typical  distinction  of  days 
as  had  place  among  the  Jews." 


192  APPENDIX. 

The  reader  will  see  how  garbled  and  unfair  is  the 
Press  quotation,  forcing  a  meaning  upon  Calvin's 
language,  the  contrary  of  what  he  does  in  reality 
mean.  In  this  xxxivth  section  Calvin  reprobates 
and  repudiates  the  superstitious  observance  of  the 
Jews,  in  regard  to  the  seventh  day,  and  rebukes 
those  who,  in  past  ages,  changed  the  day,  but  re- 
tained the  superstitions.  This  utter  perversion  will 
further  appear  from  the  following  testimony  of 
Calvin  from  other  parts  of  his  writings. 

From  his  comment  on  Exod.  xx.  8-11:  "While 
the  day  has  ceased  as  the  figure  of  a  spiritual  and 
important  mystery,  there  are  other  and  different 
ends  for  which  it  is  set  apart ;  and  in  respect  of 
the  duty  of  resting  from  all  earthly  cares  and  em- 
ployments" [is  this  wide  enough  to  take  in  The 
Press,  its  ragged  hawkers,  and  its  street  Sunday 
cars  ?]  "  and  applying  to  spiritual  exercises  in  pub- 
lic and  private,  the  necessity  of  a  Sabbath  is  com- 
mon to  us  with  the  people  of  old."  And  on  Exod. 
xvi.  28,  he  says :  "  Under  the  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  is  comprehended  the  sum  of  all  piety." 
Would  this  cover  The  Press'  work,  street  hawking 
and  Sunday  cars?  "And  hereby,"  says  Calvin,  in 
Sec.  34,  on  Deut.  v.,  "  it  appears  what  affection  to- 
wards all  Christianity,  and  toward  the  serving  of 
God,  seeing  we  make  that  thing"  [the  Sabbath]  "an 
occasion  of  drawing  off  ourselves  from  God,  which 
is  given  us  as  an  help  to  bring  us  nearer  unto  him ; 
and  be  we  once  gone  astray,  it  serveth  to  pull  us 


APPENDIX.  193 

quite  and  clean  away — and  is  not  that  a  devilish 
spite  of  men  ?"  Will  The  Press  answer  this  ques- 
tion of  Calvin,  and  explain  how  this  "devilish  spite 
of  men,"  against  God's  holy  law  of  the  Sabbath, 
promotes  piety  and  good  morals  ?  But  again,  in 
the  same  sermon,  Calvin  says,  ''  He  who  setteth  at 
naught  the  Sabbath  day,  has  cast  under  foot  all 
God's  service,  as  much  as  is  in  him;  and  if  the 
Sabbath  day  be  not  observed,  all  the  rest  shall  be 
worth  nothing."  Again,  in  his  exposition  of  John 
V.  17  :  "  The  Sabbath,  or  rest  of  God — le  repos  de 
Dieu — is  not  idleness,  but  true  perfection,  which 
brings  along  with  it  a  calm  state  of  peace."  And 
on  Jer.  xvii. :  "  The  city  will  be  safe,  if  God  be 
truly  and  devoutly  worshipped,  and  this  is  attested 
by  the  sanctification  of  the  Sabbath."  "Wor- 
shipped" how,  Mr.  Calvin,  thou  aid-de-camp  of  The 
Press  ! — in  the  printing-office  ?  in  the  hawker's  bun- 
dle ?  in  the  street  cars  carrying  out  their  thousands 
of  worshippers  to  the  country  to  keep  the  peace  of 
the  city  ?  Is  this  what  you  mean  ?  And  if  not, 
why  were  you  summoned  up  as  a  witness  in  favour 
of  these  forms  of  worship  ?  But  where,  then,  in 
Calvin's  view,  is  the  safety  of  the  city,  when  The 
Press'  reformation  shall  have  been  perfected  ? 
Again,  in  Henry's  Life  and  Times  of  John  Calvin, 
Vol.  I.,  p.  112,  Calvin  says :  "  The  Sabbath  is  the 
back  of  a  spiritual  substance,  the  use  of  which  is 
still  in  force,  of  denying  ourselves,  of  renouncing 
all  our  own  thoughts  and  affections,  and  of  bidding 
17 


194  APPENDIX. 

farewell  to  one  and  all  of  our  own  employ^nents,  so 
that  God  may  reign  in  us,  then  of  employing  our- 
selves in  the  worship  of  God."  0,  John  Calvin  ! 
how  could  you  say  this,  "  bid  farewell  to  one  and 
all  of  our  own  employments  ?"  Why,  sir,  you  were 
called  into  court  by  your  friend  to  support,  by  your 
testimony,  his  right  duly  to  testify  and  act  against 
the  law  of  God's  Sabbath  and  the  laws  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, so  that  your  summoner  might  put  down  both, 
and  be  free  to  worship  God  unmolested  in  his  print- 
ing-office, where  he  works  hard  at  his  "  enterprise, 
commenced  in  the  best  spirit,  and  conducted  for  no 
other  purpose  but  the  public  good;"  no  profits  from 
his  labour — all  for  the  public  good !  Thus,  Mr. 
Calvin,  you  have  played  Balaam  to  the  King  of 
Moab ;  he  brought  you  from  the  east,  saying,  Come, 
curse  me,  Israel,  his  law  and  his  Sabbath,  and  lo  ! 
thou  hast  blessed  them  altogether. 

But  let  the  truth  come  on ;  Calvin  is  not  through 
yet :  in  Ser.  93,  on  Deut.  v.,  he  says,  "  If  we  em- 
ploy the  Lord's  day  to  make  good  cheer,  to  sport 
ourselves,  to  go  to  games  and  pastimes,  shall  God 
in  this  be  honoured  ?  Is  it  not  mockery  ?  Is  not 
this  an  unhallowing  of  his  name?"  0,  John  Cal- 
vin !  You  have  ruined  the  cause  you  were  brought 
in  to  support.  Why,  sir,  this  which  you  call  unhal- 
lowing^ mocking^  is  the  very  thing  advocated  and 
demanded  as  a  right  by  the  anti-Sabbath  men  of 
this  city.     Read  Isaiah  Iviii.  13,  14,  and  Gilfillan. 


APPENDIX.  195 


VINDICATION  OF  MELANCTHON  AND  CRAN- 
MER. 

Messrs.  Editors  : — The  Press  arrays  Melanc- 
thon  against  the  Sabbath  and  its  friends,  thus — 
"  Melancthon  says, '  They  who  think  the  observance 
of  the  Lord's  day  has  been  appointed  by  the  au- 
thority of  the  Church,  instead  of  the  Sabbath,  as  a 
thing  necessary,  greatly  err.'  "  Here  is  unfairness 
again.  Why  are  we  not  referred  to  that  portion  of 
his  writings  whence  the  quotation  is  made  ?  Was 
the  editor  afraid  its  accuracy,  or  the  drift  of  its 
connection  might  show  a  different  meaning?  But 
history  shows  Melancthon's  views  were  coincident 
with  Luther's  and  Calvin's.  Melancthon,  in  the 
Confession  of  Saxony,  which  he  wrote,  says : — 
^'  There  hath  been  at  all  times,  even  from  the  be- 
ginning of  mankind,  a  certain  order  of  public  meet- 
ings. There  hath  been  also  a  certain  distinction 
of  times,  and  of  some  other  ceremonies."  Thus, 
with  Luther  and  Calvin,  Melancthon  held  the  Sab- 
bath, or  day  of  sacred  rest,  to  have  been  ordained 
from  the  beginning  of  mankind.  See  Hall's  Sar- 
mony,  p.  402 ;  and  on  pages  435  and  436  he  cites 
from  the  same  Confession  words  written  by  Melanc- 
thon, thus  :— "  We  thank  God  *  *  =^^  for  that 
even  from  the  first  beginning  of  mankind  he  hath 
preserved  the  public  ministry  of  the  gospel,  and 
honest  assemblies,  who  himself  hath  also  set  apart 
certain  times  for  the  same.'''     And  the  Augsburg 


196  APPENDIX. 

Confession  says: — "Whereupon  the  apostles  re- 
tained not  the  seventh  day,  but  did  rather .  take  the 
first  day  of  the  week  for  that  use,  that  by  it  they 
might  admonish  the  godly,  both  of  their  liberty  and 
of  Christ's  resurrection."  ''It  was  meet,"  says 
Melancthon,  "  that  the  apostle  should  on  this  ac- 
count— the  resurrection  of  Christ — have  changed 
the  day."  Wills'  Practical  Sabbatarian,  p.  512. 
And  this  is  the  man  whom  the  Press  presses  into 
its  unhallowed  work  of  profaning  the  Christian 
Sabbath  by  press-work,  street-hawking,  and  Sunday 
cars  !  But  this  ungracious  struggle  to  make  the 
Reformer  speak  a  language  the  contradictory  of 
what  he  does  speak,  cannot  succeed  among  a  Sab- 
bath-keeping people.  They  Avill  go  behind  garbled 
quotations  without  reference,  and  they  will  unveil 
the  fraud.  Philip  agrees  with.  Martin,  saying, 
"Wherefore  the  Sabbath  was,  from  the  beginning 
of  the  world,  set  apart  to  divine  worship."  And 
Martin  agrees  with  Philip,  "  That  the  apostles 
should,  on  account  of  Christ's  resurrection,  have 
changed  the  day." 

Cranmer  is  the  next  witness  called  to  the  stand 
to  testify  in  favour  of  Sunday  cars,  and  Sunday 
printing,  in  violation  of  God's  law  enacted  for  man 
at  his  creation,  and  of  Pennsylvania's  law  enacted 
in  1705.  There  is  effrontery  in  this  attempt  at  de- 
ception which  merits  some  sharpness  of  rebuke. 
Cranmer  lived  in  the  midst  of  the  terrible  conflict 
between  Popery  and  Christianity — in  the  reign  of 


APPENDIX.  197 

Henry  VIII.  and  Edward  YL,  and  sealed  his  testi- 
mony to  the  truth  under  bloody  Mary's  persecuting 
reign,  A.  D.  1556.  Among  many  points  of  dispu- 
tation between  Papists  and  Protestants  was  the 
question  of  holy  days ;  the  former  contending  to 
blood  and  fire  for  the  obseryance  of  many  days  as 
sacred  and  obligatory,  simply  and  wholly  on  the 
ground  of  church  authority  ;  the  latter  almost  uni- 
versally repudiating  all  but  the  Sabbath,  and  that 
solely  on  God's  authority,  and  involving  the  change 
to  the  first  day  of  the  week.  Now,  in  this  transi- 
tion state — this  state  of  disputation  and  bloody 
strife — it  were  most  unreasonable  to  look  for  those 
clear  and  definite  views  which  characterized  later 
days.  The  Archbishop,  however,  has  recorded  his 
testimony.  In  a  tract  published  in  1540  and  1543, 
and  designed  as  a  union  measure,  for  it  was  signed 
by  five  Papal  bishops,  as  well  as  by  Cranmer  and 
Latimer,  entitled,  "A  Necessary  Doctrine  and  Eru- 
dition for  any  Christian  Man,"  our  doctrine  is  dis- 
tinctly stated,  along  with  some  points  which  are  not 
correct — "  The  Fourth  Commandment  is  distin- 
guished from  the  other  nine,  the  latter  being  merely 
moral,  the  former  ceremonial,  as  regards  'rest  from 
bodily  labour  on  the  seventh  day,'  which  belonged 
only  to  the  Jews  :  but  moral  as  regards  the  spiritual 
rest  from  sin,  which  binds  Christians  at  all  times — 
the  command,  however,  binding  also  to  rest  from  all 
bodily  labour,  and  to  the  exclusive  service  of  God 
at  certain  times."  This  testimony  is  pretty  strong, 
17  « 


198  APPENDIX. 

being  published  at  a  time  v/hen  the  church  authori- 
ties and  the  king  were  not  able  to  prevent  all  kinds 
of  open  profanity,  even  during  the  hours  of  com- 
munion and  mass. 

Cranmer's  Catechism  (1548)  states,  "That  they 
must  employ  and  bestow  the  Sabbath  day  upon 
godly  works  and  business — and  that  to  spend  the 
holy  days  in  the  neglect  of  such  works,  or  '  in  idle- 
ness, banqueting,  dancing,'  etc.,  is  '  a  great  sin,'  for 
which  God  punishes  us  with  diverse  kinds  of  plagues, 
but  especially  with  need  and  poverty." — G-ilJillan, 
pp.  37,  38. 

A  little  later,  "  Elizabeth  first  allowed  a  public 
company  of  players  to  act  under  her  name  and  au- 
thority. When  a  regular  theatre  was  at  length 
established,  plays  were  acted  at  first  onlt/  on  Sun- 
days^ but  the  actors  soon  contrived  to  make  four  or 
five  Sundays  a  week." — Gilfillan^  p.  51.  On  page 
48  he  quotes  from  Miss  Strickland's  "  Lives  of  the 
British  Queens,"  Vol.  V.,  422:  "Unfortunately 
Elizabeth's  respect  for  the  Sabbath  was  confined  to 
the  act  of  joining  in  public  worship,  for  the  rest  of 
the  day  was  devoted  to  sports  not  meet  for  any 
Christian  lady  to  witness,  much  less  to  provide  for 
the  amusement  of  herself  and  court ;  but  Elizabeth 
shared  in  the  boisterous  glee  with  which  they  were 
greeted  by  the  ruder  portion  of  the  spectators. 
Bear  and  bull  baiting,  tilts,  tourneys,  and  wrestling 
were  among  the  noon-day  divertissements  of  the 
maiden  Majesty  of  England ;  dancing,  music,  cards, 


APPENDIX.  199 

and  pageants  brought  up  the  rear  of  her  Sabbath 
amusements."  Such  were  the  morals  of  England, 
necessarily  following  from  the  horrible  corruptions, 
with  which  Cranmer  had  to  contend  in  the  preced- 
ing reigns,  and  especially  from  the  utter  prostration 
of  the  Sabbath.  But  we  defy  the  Press  to  show 
that  Cranmer,  though  hardly  free  from  Popish  tram- 
mels, ever  sanctioned  Sabbath  profanation.  And 
now,  reader,  do  you  wish  to  bring  about  such  a  state 
of  things  in  this  Christian  nation  ?  If  you  do,  why 
then  patronize  the  Press  in  his  war  upon  the  laws 
of  God  and  your  country,  and  advocate  the  running 
of  street-cars  on  the  Lord's  holy  day. 


VINDICATION  OF  BAXTER. 

Messrs.  Editors  : — Among  the  witnesses  adduced 
by  the  Press  is  Baxter.  Let  us  keep  in  mind  the 
purpose  for  which  he  has  been  brought  into  court — • 
''All  of  whom,"  says  the  Press,  "with  others  equally 
orthodox,  take  distinct  issue  with  your  assumptions 
in  regard  to  the  ascetic  and  gloomy  observance  of 
the  first  day  of  the  week."  I  have  shown  that  the 
insinuation,  that  the  Christians  of  Philadelphia 
maintain  and  practise  the  ascetic  and  gloomy  ob- 
servance of  the  Sabbath,  is  wholly  unfounded  in 
truth — that  it  is  precisely  the  contradictory  of  truth. 
The  Press  assuredly  knows  that  the  Protestant 
clergy  of  Philadelphia  never  advocated  gloomy  and 


200  APPENDIX. 

superstitious  melancholy  in  sacred  things.  It  knows 
that  cheerfulness  in  the  discharge  of  their  religious 
duties  is  universal  in  all  Protestant  churches  here. 
Why,  then,  this  reckless  innuendo  ?  Why  ?  Man- 
ifestly it  is  the  play  of  the  sophist — it  is  a  loop-hole 
through  which  to  back  out  of  a  difficulty.  But  it 
shall  not  avail.  No  one  can  read  his  words  without 
seeing  that  he  meant  to  induce  his  readers,  unac- 
quainted with  church  history,  to  believe  these 
reformers  were  on  his  side  of  the  question.  This 
was  his  design,  meaning  and  intent ;  but  so  worded 
as  to  leave  a  door  of  retreat,  should  any  one  correct 
his  groundless  insinuations.  We  have  seen  that  thus 
he  falsifies  Luther,  Calvin,  Melancthon,  and  Cran- 
mer.  Let  us  now  cross-examine  Baxter,  and  see 
how  far  he  supports  the  Press'  violation  of  God's 
and  man's  laws  about  the  day  of  sacred  rest.  I 
quote  from  the  folio  edition  of  his  works,  vol.  iii. — 
that  is,  from  his  treatise  on  the  Sabbath — one  of 
the  best  defences  of  the  Christian  rest-day  ever 
published. 

On  p.  ^Q^  Mr.  Baxter  throws  his  general  argu- 
ment into  syllogistic  form ;  his  conclusion  is  in  these 
words : — "  Therefore  the  first  day  of  the  week  is 
separated  to  holy  worship  by  the  Apostles,  by  the 
inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  In  support  of 
this  he  lays  down  five  distinct  propositions ;  I  quote- 
the  fourth  and  the  fifth :— "  4.  That  the  Apostles 
did  actually  separate  or  appoint  the  first  day  of  the 
week  for  holy  worship,  especially  in  church  assem- 


APPENDIX.    -  201 

blies."  He  then  quotes  his  proofs.  "5.  That  this 
act  of  theirs  was  done  by  the  guidance  or  inspiration 
of  the  Holy  Ghost."  Having  demonstrated  this, 
he  raises  the  question,  p.  782 — "  How  should  the 
Lord's  day  be  kept  or  used?"  To  this  he  responds 
thus — ^^A7iswer.  I.  The  day  being  set  apart  to  holy 
worship,  must  accordingly  be  spent  therein.  To 
sanctify  it,  is  to  spend  it  in  holy  exercises." 

"  II.  The  principal  work  of  the  day  is  the  com- 
munion of  Christians  in  the  ]juhlic  exercises  of  God's 
worship.  They — the  Christians — spent  almost  all 
the  day  together." 

"  III.  .  .  Therefore  it  is  a  day  of  thanksgiving 
and  prayer ;  and  the  special  services  of  it  must  be 
loAidatory  and  joyful  exercises.'' 

Baxter  finds  no  time  for  secular  employments,  no 
room  for  type-setting  and  press-work,  and  hawking 
Sunday  papers  through  the  streets  in  violation  of 
law ;  no  time  for  Sunday  plays  and  sports,  for  bull 
and  bear-baits,  and  all  kinds  of  plays.  He  had  had 
a  surfeit  of  this  during  the  time  he  spent  at  court, 
where,  when  a  youth,  he  had  been  introduced  by  Sir 
Henry  Newport,  Master  of  the  Revels  ;  "  But  being 
entertained  there  with  a  play  instead  of  a  sermon, 
on  the  Lord's  day  afternoon,  and  hearing  little 
preaching  except  what  was  against  the  Puritans,  he 
found  a  month's  experience  of  court-life  sufficient, 
and  retired  with  disgust." — {GilfiUan,  p.  130.)  He 
could  not,  even  when  a  boy,  endure  "  the  King's 
Declaration  for  Sports  on  Sundays."     0  the  Press, 


202  APPENDIX. 

how  its  chosen  witnesses  turn  traitors  to  its  cause ! 
Baxter  is  nearly  as  bad  as  Luther  and  Calvin.  But 
let  us  hear  him  again : 

In  chap,  x.,  p.  784,  he  raises  the  question,  "How 
the  Lord's  day  should  be  spent ;  or  what  is  unlaw- 
ful on  it?"  This  he  answers  in  distinct  propositions. 
"I.  Undoubtedly  it  must  not  be  spent  in  wickedness 
— in  gluttony,  or  drunkenness,  chambering,  or  wan- 
tonness, strife,  or  envying ;  or  any  of  those  works 
of  the  flesh  which  are  at  all  times  sinful.  An  evil 
work  is  most  unsuitable  to  a  holy  day." 

And  yet,  alas  !  what  day  hath  more  rioting,  and 
excess  of  meat  and  drink,  and  wantonness,  and  sloth, 
and  lust,  than  it  ?  How  very  unfortunate  is  The 
Press  in  its  witnesses !  At  every  point  they  fail 
him,  and  Baxter  sweeps  the  feet  from  him  entirely. 
But  worse,  and  more  of  it.  "  II.  It  ought  not  to 
be  spent  in  our  own  worldly  business."  No  provi- 
sion, Mr.  Press,  for  your  "poor  men"  to  earn  a 
pittance  on  the  Sabbath,  to  eke  out  the  scant  wages 
of  your  "subs"  on  the  week  days.  Alas,  no! 
Baxter  has  "no  pity  on  these  poor  men,"  as  The 
Press  counts  pity.  They  must  not  "  walk  all  the 
way  in  day  time  to  Seventh  and  Chestnut  and  back, 
at  or  in  the  night."  No  wages  earned  on  Sunday, 
in  direct  violation  of  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania ! 
What  shall  these  "poor  men"  do  for  bread  and 
sour-crout,  seeing  they  cannot  earn  enough  in  six 
days  to  keep  them  from  the  painful  necessity  of 
selling  their  freedom,  and  becoming  slaves  to  a  hard 


APPENDIX.  203 

master.  Well,  let  us  see  if  there  is  any  relief  in 
Baxter's  III.  answer.  "  The  Lord's  day  must  not 
be  spent  in  tempting,  diverting,  unnecessary  recrea- 
tions, or  pleasures  of  the  flesh" — the  very  things 
for  which  The  Press  advocates  the  running  of  cars 
on  Sunday.  Oh,  sir,  why  did  you  not  interrogate 
your  witness  a  little  before  you  summoned  him  up 
to  the  stand?  Why,  he  is  ruining  your  cause.  But 
now  that  he  is  here  by  your  summons,  we  have  a 
legal  right  to  cross-examine,  and  we  are  not  done 
yet.  Mr.  Baxter,  please  tell  the  court  what  you 
mean  by  "pleasures  of  the  flesh."  Ans.  ''Bowls, 
hunting,  cards,  dice,  stage  plays,  races,  dancing, 
bear-baitings,  cock-fights,  or  any  such  sensual  sports. ' ' 
He  details,  with  great  severity,  in  five  classes  of 
these  sensual  delights. 

Then,  on  p.  786,  he  takes  up  an  objection.  "But 
poor,  labouring  people  must  have  some  recreation, 
and  they  cannot,  through  their  poverty,  have  leisure 
any  other  day."  This  is  precisely  The  Press'  ob- 
jection. How  does  his  own  witness  meet  it  ?  Thus : 
"  Alas !  a  sad  argument  to  be  used  by  them  who, 
by  racking  of  rents,  do  keep  them  in  poverty." 
We  might,  as  perfectly  parallel,  say — By  stinted 
wages  their  employers  cut  them  ofi"  from  reasonable 
recreations  on  week  days.  The  late  John  McDon- 
ogh,  of  New  Orleans,  gave  his  slaves  always  Satur- 
day afternoon  to  themselves ;  and  on  the  basis  of 
this,  under  his  advice,  they  worked  out  their  free- 
dom, and  he  sent  eighty-one  of  them  to  Liberia. 


204  APPENDIX. 

Mr.  Baxter's  third  response  is  thus  :  "  Is  it  their 
bodies,  or  their  minds,  that  need  recreation  ?  When 
the  body  is  tired  with  toilsome  labour,  it  is  ease, 
rather  than  toilsome  dancings  and  plays,  that  are 
fit  to  recreate  it."  When  the  labourers  on  the  cars, 
or  in  the  printing-press,  the  factory,  anywhere,  re- 
turn to  their  homes  on  Saturday  night,  Baxter  says 
most  truly  it  is  ease — and  he  italicises  it — it  is  ease 
they  need,  and  hence  God,  who  understands  their 
nature  probably  as  well  as  The  Press  editor  does, 
has  provided  this  recreating  ease  in  the  Sabbath 
law.  But  our  most  liberal  Sabbath-keeping  oppo- 
nents, instead  of  permitting  their  employees  tg  en- 
joy the  rest  day  at  their  ease,  force  theiji  into  the 
printing-office  or  the  cars,  to  conduct  or  drive,  or 
to  rush  away  from  the  holy  sanctuaries  into  the 
haunts  of  dissipation ;  the  way-side  traps  in  the 
country,  whence  they  return  fatigued,  wearied,  and 
worn  down  with  recreation,  if  not  battered,  bruised, 
and  bloody,  the  most  natural  and  not  uncommon 
result  of  worshipping  at  the  shrine  of  Bacchus. 
Thus  much  for  Baxter's  testimony  in  support  of 
The  Press. 


VINDICATION  OF  KNOX. 
In  his  new-born  zeal  against  tlie  day  of  sacred 
rest,  Mr.   Forney  has  given  frequent  cause  for  a 
smile  of  pity  and  contempt,  by  referring  to  the  re- 


APPENDIX.  205 

formers  as  if  they  were  on  his  side  of  the  conflict. 
Just  think,  ye  Presbyterians  who  support  the  creed, 
think  of  John  Knox  being  called  in  to  aid  in  a  cru- 
sade against  the  holy  Sabbath  !  Only  think  of  the 
indomitable  and  stern  reprover  of  all  iniquity,  in 
whose  presence  the  Queen  of  Scotland  trembled 
with  rage  and  alternately  wept  over  her  sins,  while 
Knox  reprimanded  her  for  her  errors.  Yes  !  this 
same  Knox,  "who  never  feared  the  face  of  man," 
is  summoned  in  by  an  editor  of  a  Philadelphia  news- 
paper, to  help  him  to  defend  Sunday  work  in  print- 
ing and  distributing  a  newspaper  and  running  street 
cars  !  Is  not  this  laughable  ! !  Surely  no  Presby- 
terian need  be  informed  that  Knox  did  more  in  call- 
ing out  from  Rome,  and  forming  and  moulding  the 
Kirk  of  Scotland,  than  the  extremest  of  the  rigid 
disciplinarians.  Bishop  Burnet  (cited  in  Gilfillan, 
p.  160)  says, ."  They  kept  scandalous  persons  under 
a  severe  discipline :  for  breach  of  Sabbath,  for  an 
oath,  or  the  least  disorder  in  drunkenness,  persons 
were  cited  before  the  Church-Session,  and  were  sol- 
emnly reproved  for  it."  "In  1754,  the  Sessions 
commenced  the  practice  of  employing  individuals 
of  their  number  to  traverse  the  towns  on  Sabbaths 
and  other  seasons  of  public  worship,  for  the  purpose 
of  causing  notice  to  be  taken  of  such  as  should  be 
found  "raging  abroad  upon  the  streets,  and  of 
having  them  cited  before  the  Session."  And  this 
extreme  rigidness  continued  for  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years.  Suppose  they  had  caught  The  Press  col- 
is 


206  APPENDIX. 

porteurs,  how  then?  In  1641,  Charles  I.  visited 
Scotland,  and  attended  the  High  Church,  Edin- 
burgh, in  the  forenoon  of  the  Sabbath,  but  spent 
the  afternoon  in  playing  at  golf;  Henderson,  the 
minister,  conversed  with  His  Majesty  on  the  enor- 
mity of  his  offence,  and  he  reformed  for  the  time, 
(p.  161.) 

In  the  First  Book  of  Discipline  drawn  up  by 
Knox,'we  read :  "  The  Sabbath  must  be  kept  strictly 
in  all  towns,  both  forenoon  and  afternoon,  for  hear- 
ing of  the  Word ;  at  afternoon  upon  the  Sabbath, 
the  catechism  shall  be  taught,  the  children  shall  be 
examined,  and  the  baptism  administered.  Public 
prayers  shall  be  used  upon  the  Sabbath,  as  well  af- 
ternoon as  before,  when  sermons  cannot  be  had.'* 
And  in  June,  1562,  the  Assembly  resolved,  "  that 
supplication  be  made  to  Queen  Mary  for  the  pun- 
ishing of  Sabbath-breaking."  And  again,  in  1565, 
she  was  memorialized  on  the  "  manifest  breaking  of 
the  Sabbath  day,  as  among  the  horrible  and  detest- 
able crimes"  which  ought  to  be  punished.  In  the 
Assembly  of  1562  or  1665,  Knox  voted  approval 
of  the  Helvetic  Confession,  in  which  these  words 
occur:  "We  keep  the  Lord's  day,  not  the  Sabbath, 
by  a  voluntary  observance,"  and  "  every  church 
chooses  for  itself  a  .certain  time  for  public  prayer 
and  the  preaching  of  the  gospel;"  it  declares  "that 
the  Lord's  day  was  devoted  to  religious  meetings 
and  sacred  leisure,  even  as  early  as  the  times  of  the 
apostles,  and  that   it  is  not  left  free  to  every  one 


APPENDIX.  207 

capriciously  to  overturn  this  arrangement  of  the 
church,"  p.  463.  Alas !  how  sadly  Mr.  Forney's 
witnesses  forsake  him ! 

His  next  is  Milton.  In  him  he  is  not  so  unfor- 
tunate. Milton,  like  most  men  of  his  day,  and 
many  in  our  day,  was  befogged  in  the  Red  Sea — 
they  have  not  been  able  to  see  the  difference .  be- 
tween the  regular  seventh  day  rest  and  the  extra 
Sabbaths  of  the  Israelites,  of  which  you  have  five 
in  Lev.  xxiii.  Milton  was  a  splendid  linguist,  and 
a  great  poet.  He  has  never  enjoyed  the  reputation 
of  a  pious,  a  godly  man.  He  is  claimed  by  them 
of  that  creed  as  a  Unitarian,  and  all  that  sect  go 
in  for  a  lively,  slack,  sportive  Sabbath.  ''  Milton 
was  an  Arian,"  says  Hallam.  "It  is  said  that  the 
discovery  of  Milton's  Arianism,  in  this  rigid  gene- 
ration, has  already  impaired  the  sale  of  Paradise 
Lost."  This  testimony  of  Hallam  coincides  with 
Doctor  Johnson's,  who  says,  "Milton  grew  old  with- 
out any  visible  worship.  In  the  distribution  of  his 
time  there  was  no  hour  of  prayer,  either  solitary 
or  with  his  household ;  omitting  public  prayer,  he 
omitted  all."  "  The  neglect  of  prayer  in  his  family 
was  probably  a  fault  for  which  he  condemned  him- 
self." See  Johnson's  Lives  of  British  Poets,  L,  134. 
This  sin  of  neglecting  prayer,  altogether  is  very 
probably  a  characteristic  of.  Sabbath  breakers  as  a 
class.  The  Press'  vapouring  over  Milton's  argu- 
ment displays  his  own  ignorance  of  the  subject  on 
which  he  writes,  as  well  as  his  symp^fthy  with  other 


208  APPENDIX. 

errors  of  the  great  poet.  Milton's"  arguments  have 
been  all  answered  a  hundred  times,  and  far  more. 
The  great  poet's  views  of  Christian  theology,  his 
loose  and  dangerous  doctrines  of  marriage  and  di- 
vorce, and  low  estimate  of  the  tender  sex,  all  com- 
bine in  putting  him  in  his  right  place  as  a  foe  to 
praying  and  keeping  holy  the  Lord's  day.  It  is 
fortunate  for  the  Sabbath  that  Milton  was  not  its 
friend.  Doctor  Johnson  says  Ellwood,  a  Quaker, 
to  whom  he  acknowledged  his  indebtedness  for  the 
hint,  out  of  which  sprung  the  "Paradise  Regained," 
read  Latin  to  him  every  day  in  the  week,  except 
Sunday." 


[From  the  American  Preshytcrian.'] 

DEISiM    OPPOSED    TO    THE    DAY   OF    SACRED    REST. 

*'  A  man  is  known  by  the  (book)  company  he  keeps." 

Mr.  Editor  : — Having  recently  read  a  work  "On 
the  Institution  of  the  Sabbath  Day,"  and  marked 
some  forty  passages  decidedly,  and  more  or  less,  ex- 
plicitly, denying  the  divine  authority  of  the  sacred 
Scriptures;  I  herewith  send  you  apart  of  them  to 
show  how  open  infidelity  and  hostility  to  the  Lord's 
day  affiliate.  I  give  them  just  as  I  marked  them, 
in  the  order  of  the  pages. 

**  Yet  in  the  reformatory  systems  of  the  day  com- 
mon sense  is  iaid   aside   for    Sabbath   enactments, 


APPENDIX.  209 

wliich  it  is  vainly  believed  are  sufficient  to  reform 
the  world,  and  for  theological  dogmas,  which  above 
all  else,  have  ever  been  the  cause  of  crime,  suffer- 
ing, and  degradation." — Page  7. 

"And  they  refer  to  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis, 
wherein  it  is  stated  that  the  heavens  and  earth  be- 
ing finished,  God  rested  on  the  seventh  day  from  all 
his  works,  and  blessed  and  sanctified  the  day. 

"  In  this  account  of  the  creation  nature  speaks 
one  language,  the  Bible  another.  Shall  we  put 
aside  those  unchangeable  marks  of  a  creation  long 
anterior  to  that  recorded,  to  be  guided  by  records 
written  when  and  by  whom  no  one  knows  ? 

"The  account  in  the  book  of  Genesis  can  only 
be  considered  as  an  allegory  calculated  to  please 
children  and  ignorant  men.  In  its  literal  sense  it  is 
entitled  to  no  confidence.  Were  it  even  true,  it 
does  not  warrant  the  conclusion  which  has  been 
drawn  from  it." — Page  18. 

"  No  one  at  this  remote  period  can  decide  why 
the  Sabbath  was  instituted." — Page  31. 

"And  it  seems  highly  probable  that  at  this  period, 
in  the  reign  of  Josiah,  [864  years  after  Sinai,]  the 
Pentateuch  was  promulgated  for  the  first  time." — 
Page  44. 

"  Can  any  intelligent  mind,  believe  that  the 
Father  of  Mercies  has  provided  a  conservative 
power  to  preserve  and  uphold  all  physical  things, 
and  yet  has  left  man  a  prey  to  chance  ?  made  him 
dependent  for  truth  upon  the   Scriptures,  which  so 

18*  . 


210  APPENDIX. 

late  as  the  year  1516  Tyndale  was  burnt  at  the 
stake  for  translating  into  the  English  language?" — 
Page  175. 

"  Can  any  one  believe  that  this  book,  ambiguous 
in  its  language,  uncertain  in  its  conjectures,  is  de- 
signed by  the  Almighty  to  be  the  rule-  of  life  for 
man?" 

"  The  authority  of  th©.laws  of  Moses,  which  was 
adhered  to  by  the  Puritans,  has  greatly  lessened, 
but  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures  generally,  among 
those  who  profess  to  be  the  teachers  of  men,  remains 
in  its  pristine  vigour;  and  if  our  reasoning  is  true, 
such  a  doctrine  is  of  incalculable  evil  to  the  morals 
and  welfare  of  society.  From  infancy,  children  are 
instructed  that  this  book  is  'the  Word  of  God,'  the 
'  revelation  of  his  will,  the  guide  of  life,'  and  with 
these  preconceived  opinions,  false  in  their  very  na- 
ture, every  effort  to  reform  society  fails." — Page 
194. 

"  I  touch  upon  the  subject  of  the  clergy  with  re- 
gret, because  I  am  liable  to  be  misunderstood;"  (not 
at  all,  sir,  you  are  perfectly  well  understood,  to  be 
a  malicious,  bitter,  slanderer  of  the  whole  evangelical 
clergy,)  "yet  there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  it  is 
mainly  through  their  influence  that  the  Sabbath 
superstition  is  spread  through  the  country.  But 
the  system  of  paying  men  for  preaching  and  pray- 
ing is  liable  to  great  abuse." — Page  198. 

"  The  first  day  of  the  week  is  the  great  harvest 
of  the  clergy  ;  hence  so  little  reliance  is  to  be  placed 


APPENDIX.  ^  211 

upon  anything  they  say  on  the  subject." '^  Many 

of  them  would  take  either  side  of  the  Sabbath  ques-' 
tion,  as  their  interest  might  dictate." — Page  199. 
"Whose  feelings  I  would  not  willingly  wound." — 
P.  198.  How  brotherly  thee  is,  Friend !  "  Whether 
in  religion  or  literature,  the  clergy  have  always  been 
behind  the  age ;  from  them  have  emanated  all  the 
persecutions  which  have  disgraced  the  name  of  reli- 
gion. Their  prejudices  are  so  deep,  and  their  in- 
terest so  immediate,  that  it  is  scarcely  possible  that 
their  statements  should  be  correct." — Page  200. 

"  The  Esquimaux  and  the  Hottentots  are  effectu- 
ally saved  as  Christians  can  be.  The  institution 
of  a  Sabbath  has  never  come  to  them ;  but  they 
understand  the  great  moral  principles  of  right  and 
wrong  as  perfectly  as  we  do." — Page  242.  (If  by 
'•we,"  he  means  the  little  sectarian  cli(fue  to  which 
the  author  belongs,  it  is  probably  true.) 

"  Jesus  left  no  writing  behind  him  as  a  rule  for 
others — he  directed  none  to  do  so." — Page  244. 

Thus  infidelity  marks  the  book  from  beginning  to 
ending.  It  totally  repudiates  the  Gospel.  This  is 
the  book  recommended  by  The  Press,  and  which 
led  that  paper  into  its  false  quotations.  What  select 
company  Colonel  Forney  keeps. 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Aflfections,  religious  cultivated 206 

Atonement-day,  a  Sabbath 79 

B 

Baking,  cooking,  &c.,  on  Sabbath 148 

Bayonets  only  can  keep  order,  where  no  Sabbath 135 

Beasts  protected  by  Fourth  Commandment 156 

Bible,  its  opposers  bad;  its  friends  good 44 

Bow  in  the  clouds,  a  sign 96 

C 

Christmas  not  a  Sabbath 84 

Commandments,  Ten — no  penalties  in 77 

Commandments,  Ten,  their  matter  proves  them  common  to  man     57 

Commandments,  Ten,  organic,  constitutional  law 52,  55,  86 

Covenant,  adopting  the  Ten  Words 27,  29 

Cromwell's  good  government,  owipg  to  Sabbatic  observance 134 

D 

Day  for  Sabbath,  first  or  seventh? 115 

Decalogue,  its  age 39 

Duties,  Sabbath,  family.  Sabbath-school,  sanctuary 150,  152 

Duty,  can't  be  forced Jf, 75 

Eagle  banner,  a  sign  or  token 99 

Evening,  not  the  beginning  of  the  day 110 

Expenses  of  irreligion 136 

213 


214  INDEX. 

F 

PAQE 

Feasts  of  the  Jews,  Sabbaths,  but  not  the  Sabbath 79 

Feasts  of  the  Jews,  trumpets,  tabernacles,  etc 81 

First  day  rest , 119 

Fourth  Commandment  analyzed 62 

French  Sabbath,  very  costly 136 

Freedom,  not  in  doing  as  we  please 162 

G 

Great  Law  of  Penn 15 

H 

Health  by  Sabbath  observance 128 

Hebrew  constitution 52 

History  of  Sabbath 9,  19,  20,  21,  27,  37 

Holy  to  the  Lord 142 

I 
Idleness  a  sin 149 

J 

Jewish  peculiarities  no  part  of  the  Ten  "Words 57,  69 

K 

Knowledge  promoted  by  the  Sabbath 130 

L. 

Labour,  incessant  impossible 127 

Labour  for  six  days  obligatory 66 

Law  and  penalty  distinguished ..70,75,  104 

Law,  given  at  Sinai  by  Christ 31 

Law,  municipal  distinguished  from  organic 44 

Liberty,  curtailed  by  laws  of  Pennsylvania 161 

Liberty  not  licentiousness 162 

Lord's  day,  name  of  Sabbath 123 

M 

Mankind,  Sabbath  made  for 22,  23 

Manna,  occasions  the  restoration  of  the  Sabbath 12 

McLeod  of  Glasgow,  bound  for  infidelity 18,  59 

Mercy,  in  the  Sabbath 144 

Miracles  accompany  the  Sabbath 31,  32 

Moral  character  of  Sabbath 9 


INDEX.  215 

PAQK 

Necessity  in  regard  to  works  on  Sabbath 144 

Not  for  man  to  create,  but  God 144,  147 

Negatively  holy,  not  all 142 

O 

Objections,  Sabbath  has  no  history 16 

Objections,  Sabbath  is  a  sign 95 

Objections,  you  must  take  the  penalty 101 

Objections,  you  must  take  the  seventh  day 102 

Opposers  of  Sabbath — their  character  an  argument  vs 45 

Organic  law  purely  moral 62 

P 

Passover,  municipal  law 80 

Penalty,  variable 76 

Penalty,  severe  to  all  Jewish  laws 77,  101 

Penn's  law  on  Sabbath 125 

Permanency  of  Sabbath , 32 

Positive  duties  of  Sabbath 149 

Prescription,  Sabbath  has  a  right  by 40 

Prosperity,  even  worldly,  follows  the  Sabbath 140 

Public  safety  in  Sabbatic  observance 134 

R 

Reason  for  the  Sabbath,  proof  its  moral  nature 67,  95 

Rest  necessary 127 

Rest  proved  by  natural  religion 34,  65 

Representatives  of  Israel  adopt  the  Ten  Words 55,  56 

Rush,  Judge,  on  the  reason  of  the  Sabbath 68 

S 

Sabbath,  beginning  of Ill 

Sabbath,  benefits 127 

Sabbath,  extra  Jewish — annual 79,  80,  81,  82 

Sabbath,  change  of  day 118 

Sabbath,  an  organic  law,  not  municipal 90,  93 

Sabbath,  name  never  applied  but  to  holy  rest 106* 

Sabbath,  first  or  seventh? 133 

Sunday — name 124 

Seventh  day,  never  the  name  of  holy  rest 102 


216  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Seventh  day,  a  mysticalnumber  of  perfection 118 

Sleep  a  blessing 127 

T 

Ten  Words,  uttered  in  thunder 15,  30 

Time — same  absolute  portion,  impossible 102,  lOS,  109 

Time,  a  mere  plea  for  evasion 192,  108 

U 

Usury  laws  of  Jews  a  charitable  rule 74 

V 

Visiting  on  Sabbath 148 

Voyage  round  the  globe,  westward  converts  a  Jewish  into  a 

Christian  Sabbath 148 

-w 

"Washington  on  foreign  influence 159 

Will  of  God  is  law 137 


